


Road to Fame

by psychotrashdump



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Chaotic Justin and Chengcheng, Humor, M/M, Parent Zhu Zhengting | Jung Jung, bc it cheers me up, just a self-indulgent brain dump I did, kinda crackfic-y but not really, minor romantic subplot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26006821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychotrashdump/pseuds/psychotrashdump
Summary: In which Zhengting is a normal person dragged into dumpster fires by aspiring idols Justin and Chengcheng. Featuring Zhengting as Justin and Chengcheng's (unpaid) manager on their chaotic climb to fame.
Relationships: Cai Xukun/Zhu Zhengting | Jung Jung
Comments: 18
Kudos: 55





	1. Chapter 1

"Zhengting ge!"

Justin and Chengcheng's excited voices rang out as they bounced into the room, both grinning widely. "We were invited into the lineup for this concert on Friday! And get this, Caixukun, Wangziyi, and Xiaogui are all going to be there too! I can't believe we're going to meet them! I feel like a celebrity, getting invited to something like this."

Zhengting pulled both of them into a hug, excitement coursing through him, "This is great! Have you decided which songs you're doing? We've got to get you guys something to wear! I'll go out today to buy some new clothing, and you guys can choose anything you want for dinner tonight."

"Won't new clothing cost too much?" Justin asked, worried, "You don't need to keep spending so much money on us."

Zhengting waved him off, "Don't worry about finances. It's my job to take care of that, just focus on your careers. This could be the thing that really solidifies your places as public figures, you need to look the part."

Chengcheng perked up, "Hey, how about in return we'll try to get you a picture with Caixukun. You've been a fan of him forever, now you might get a chance to meet him!"

"Nope. No. Not doing that," Zhengting shook his head, "I'm just going to come off as some obsessive fan and creep him out. I don't want to risk making you two look bad, especially since he's a very good connection to have. Make sure to do some proper networking when you're there-"

"Ugh, not again with the networking thing. You know we're bad at that."

Justin pouted, "Why can't you do that for us? You're our manager right? You've always handled that logistical stuff for us before."

Zhengting smiled sympathetically, "I know it's difficult, but I can't be there with you guys and you don't have an actual manager yet, so you have to take care of this stuff yourself for the time being. Don't worry, it'll make great anecdotal material for once you're famous, coming from nothing and having to manage your own careers."

"Why  _ can't _ you come with us? You were gonna come watch us anyways right? So why don't you just come backstage with us?"

"Usually I would," Zhengting sighed, "But I'm not going to be able to maintain proper professionalism around you-know-who and it'll only reflect badly on you two. It's bad enough that some people are going to look down on you two for not belonging to a company or not being able to hire your own security team, you don't need any liabilities present."

"But you will be there right?" Justin checked, "In the audience?"

"Of course." Zhengting promised, "I'll be there right after work, so I can get a seat in the front row and cheer you guys on."

"Ooh, can we get lamb skewers tonight?"

"I want fried chicken!"

"Cupcakes!"

"Ice cream!"

Zhengting shook his head fondly, "I'm already regretting promising you dinner."

~

Xukun enjoyed looking through comments. Yes not all of them were nice, but he was used to that by now. 

He posted a clip of their dance practice, a teaser for the performance they were doing on Friday. These joint concerts were always fun, there was a good variety of different performances, new faces, and good sponsorship opportunities.

"Bro, come look at this! This modeling agency is doing a clothing launch there, which means we have a good chance of possibly getting a deal."

Xiaogui groaned, "Does that mean we have to sit through a fashion show? They're always so boring, and we all know you and Kun are getting offers regardless."

"If you stopped disappearing all the time you'd be around when their scouting agents come by." Ziyi told him, "They can't make an offer if you aren't there to accept it."

The three of them lapsed into silence, tired from a day of rehearsals. He turned his phone off and set it on the coffee table. It'd probably be smarter to go to sleep instead of staying up late browsing social media, he had a long day tomorrow. 

~

_ 1 voicemail message _

"Gege! Hurry over as soon as you're done with work! It's an emergency!"

Zhengting started his car, panic and worry stabbing at his chest, did something go wrong? He dialed Chengcheng's number, waiting anxiously for him to pick up.

"Zhengting ge! Thank god you called, you're out of work now right? You're on your way? The makeup kit is still in the car right?"

"Woah, slow down, did something happen? Yes I'm on my way, yes the makeup kit should still be in the backseat."

"We're the only ones here without a styling team," Justin's voice came in alongside Chengcheng's, "We didn't know we were supposed to do our own thing, usually for other events the production team dictates everyone's look."

"When are you getting here?" Chengcheng asked, "We look dumb sitting in the dressing room doing nothing while everyone else is getting hair and makeup done."

"10-ish minutes? Maybe faster if I ignore a few traffic laws."

"Oh no, we're fine," Justin's voice sounded faint, like he was talking to someone else, "Our stylist is just running a bit late. Yeah, traffic is pretty bad. We'll find you later? Yeah, sure. Of course, definitely."

"Oh my god," Justin hissed, voice louder now, "Wangziyi just came by to check on us. I think I'm going to die of embarrassment. Please say you're almost here. He invited us to watch the concert with him from backstage. Along with Caixukun. And Xiaogui."

Zhengting's eyes widened, "That's amazing! Yeah, I'm pulling into the parking lot- uh, can you come to the door? I see a security guard."

"Shit."

"Language," Zhengting reprimanded mildly.

"We can't leave the room! Can't you just...sneak in or something?"

"I have an idea," Chengcheng piped up, "I left one of those annoyingly long earrings in the cupholder, if you put that on and unbutton your shirt a bit they'll probably mistaken you for a performer. Or one of the models."

"I'm flattered you think I could pass as a model, but I highly doubt this is going to work." Zhengting told them, following Chengcheng's instructions anyway and throwing on lipstick and eyeliner before exiting the car, "Maybe we could video call? That way you could show them your pass and tell them I'm with you."

"That's a good idea, wait a se-"

"Oh." Zhengting tried not to look surprised when the security guard opened the door for him, he gave the guard a polite smile as he walked through, "Nevermind. They let me in."

"See? I told you it would work! We're on the second floor, room 4, hurry up!"

Zhengting hung up, walking quickly through the hall in search of the staircase. Turning a corner, he almost crashed right into another person, stopping only just in time to keep from a collision.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying atten-" Zhengting's mouth went dry, staring at the face of the man in front of him. What was Caixukun doing here? Shouldn't he be......anywhere else? 

"Um," Xukun started awkwardly, "Are you....lost? Did you need help?"

"Uh, yes!" Zhengting responded, voice coming out higher than usual, "I- um, I don't know where anything is?"

Xukun gave him a friendly smile and Zhengting thought he would die right there, "I'll show you the way, come on."

He followed Xukun dumbly, still reeling from suddenly being so close in proximity to  _ the _ Caixukun. They already made it up the stairs and down a hall when Zhengting realized he never told Xukun where he was headed.

"Um, how did you know where I'm headed?" Zhengting asked, glad his voice came out normal sounding this time.

"The modeling agency took the room right next to the performers so I know where they're staying." Xukun explained, "I promise I wasn't about to lead you anywhere sketchy."

"Modeling agency??"

Xukun frowned, "Oh, are you not......are you one of the performers?" Xukun studied Zhengting's face closely, "I think I would remember seeing you."

Zhengting shied away from his gaze, "No, I'm not. Um, I'm not performing....I was just........it's nothing."

"Okay?" Xukun looked slightly confused, but didn't question him. He stopped, motioning to a door, "Here we are then, I'll make sure to look for you during the fashion portion of the lineup. See you later?"

Zhengting forced a smile, "Sure. Thank you so much."

Once Xukun was out of sight Zhengting went to the adjacent room and slipped inside. The room was mostly empty now, with Justin and Chengcheng hiding in the corner of the room. They jumped up when he came in, waving at him from across the room.

"You're here! We've been waiting forever! Most of the people have already gone backstage to wait for the performances to start."

Zhengting quickly opened his bag, spreading the supplies out on the table, "How much time do we have?"

Chengcheng went still, letting Zhengting apply the foundation to his face. "We aren't up until about halfway through," Justin responded, "but I wanted to be there to watch the other performances. What if they think we're rude for not watching?"

"Don't worry," Zhengting soothed, "hey, guess who I ran into on the way here," he said, trying to distract them.

"Who?"

"Caixukun."

"What?" Chengcheng sat up, eyes wide, "Really? Did you say hi? Did he see you?"

"Stay still," Zhengting chided, carefully drawing on eyeliner, "I'm pretty sure he saw me, considering I almost crashed into him."

"Really?" Justin leaned forwards, concerns from earlier forgotten, "you didn't do that thing where you freeze up did you?"

"I did." Zhengting admitted sheepishly, "Justin, your turn, get over here."

Justin sat down obediently, letting Zhengting start dabbing product onto his face, "What happened after that? You didn't just stare weirdly until he left did you?"

"Of course not!" Zhengting scoffed, a look of mock offense on his face, "he asked if I was lost, and then offered to show me the way. I was too dumbfounded to realize I never told him where I was going, and get this, he assumed I was a model and led me to their room."

"Oh my god," Justin bounced in his seat, causing Zhengting to accidentally smear his lipstick, "Do you know what that means?"

Zhengting sighed and wiped at the smeared lipstick, "I almost got kicked out for being unauthorized personnel?"

"No! He mistook you for a model! That means he thinks you're hot!"

Zhengting rolled his eyes, setting Justin's hair with hairspray, "Highly doubtful. I just happened to be around the general age of the people here, so it would've been logical to assume I was either a performer or a model, and he already knew all the performers. There you go, all done. I'll see you two after the performance okay? Good luck."

"You're not staying? But you're already here, just come backstage with us."

Zhengting gave them both a kiss on the forehead, "You two are the celebrities and I will always be your biggest fan, but as a fan I belong in the audience. Don't worry too much, focus on your performance, make friends, keep your phone with you in case I call okay?"

~

"Good job bro, can't believe you finally got a job offer from one of these things. See what happens when you don't run off to the bathroom right after the event is over?"

Xiaogui flopped down on the couch, exhausted, "I don't even know if I want the job anymore. All of their models come off as super arrogant and cliquey, I'm pretty sure I heard one of them bad mouthing everyone that passed by."

"At least we'll also be there," Xukun assured him, "Besides, I met one of their models and he seemed perfectly nice, so not all of them are going to be jerks."

Ziyi nodded, "We meet so many people at these events. What do you guys think of Justin and Fanchengcheng? I think their careers are really going somewhere. They're talented."

"They are," Xukun agreed, "Did you ever get their contact information?"

"Yeah, they gave me their manager's number. I also added them on their personal accounts so I could talk to them directly."

"Usernames? I'll add them too."

~

"Zhengtiiiiiiiiiing!" Justin and Chengcheng shouted.

"What is it?" Zhengting yelled back, continuing to put his pajamas on.

"Come heeeeeeeeere!"

Zhengting sighed, trudging out of his room, "It's already late, shouldn't you kids be getting ready for bed?"

"Ziyi, Xiaogui, and Caixukun all added us on instagram! Both of us!"

"Oh? I would have thought they already followed you guys."

"No, I meant they added us on our personal accounts, with their personal accounts! That means we're part of their circle right? Since their accounts are set on private. Oooh, do you want to look through all their old photos with us?"

Zhengting hugged them, "I'm so proud of you two, and no, their accounts are private for a reason, they gave you permission to look, not me."

Chengcheng rolled his eyes, "Look at you, having morals. That's no fun. Any fan would jump at the chance to take a look."

"Oh sh- you have photos of me on your personal accounts don't you?" Zhengting realized, "Is it possible for you to delete them? Just the ones where my face is clearly shown? There shouldn't be that many right?"

"That's so unnecessary," Chengcheng whined, "It's not like- oh wow you're in every other photo I post, I can't delete all of these. Why do I have to delete these?"

"You don't," he amended, "But it'd be nice if you did."

Justin tucked himself under Zhengting's arm, eyes still fixed to his phone, "Whatever you want gege."

~

Xiaogui laughed, "Justin and Chengcheng just purged half the photos off their instagram accounts, I was looking through their old photos and suddenly they started disappearing."

Ziyi gave him a weird look, "Why are you looking through all their photos?"

"What? You don't do that? When I follow someone new I always stalk them back to the beginning of time."

Xukun flicked Xiaogui on the side of the head, "That's probably why they're deleting things, because they didn't want us snooping through their old photos. Besides, the photoshoot is tomorrow, we should probably get to sleep."


	2. Chapter 2

"I feel like shit."

"Your fault bro," Ziyi shrugged, "I tried to be responsible and go to sleep but you enable all my bad habits. I really should move out."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they fired us on the spot for looking half dead, oh look Justin and Chengcheng are also here."

Xukun lifted his head, catching a glimpse of them saying goodbye to someone in a car before the car drove away. They both looked fully put together, well rested, hair combed and skin clear. He got out of the car, waving to catch their attention.

"Hey! Justin and Fanchengcheng right? Were you two also invited to the photoshoot?"

They approached nervously, standing so close to each other that their shoulders were touching. "Uh, yeah! Are we going in?"

They walked into the building, Justin and Chengcheng trailing nervously behind with Xiaogui beside them.

"How do you look so put together this early in the morning? Anyone would think you were the professionals and we were the newcomers."

Justin laughed sheepishly, "Our brother forced us to sleep early and wake up early to do a face mask. I think he was more nervous about this than we were."

"That's exactly the opposite of what we did. We slept late and woke up just in time to jump in the car and not arrive late. I haven't even brushed my hair."

~

**(xxx-xxx-xxxx):** Hello, this is Yuan Chenyi, the rapper/songwriter Wang Ziyi's agent. You are the manager for Justin Huang, correct?

Zhengting stared at his phone in disbelief, was this supposed to be a prank?

"Zhengting ge! You're here!" Justin walked out of the building, a smile on his face, "It went great! I know I told you to pick us up at noon but could we maybe stay a bit longer? I think we're really starting to get to kno-"

"Huang Minghao. Please tell me you didn't give my phone number to anyone claiming I was your manager. Aside from Wang Ziyi of course, since his manager just contacted me."

Justin flinched at Zhengting's disapproving tone, "I didn't mean to! He asked me who to contact for career related things and I didn't want to admit I didn't actually have a manager or an agency, so I just gave him your phone number."

"Justin...."

"But..." Justin continued, "You've been coordinating career opportunities for us since the beginning of this, so this should be fine right? I mean, unless you're busy, I know work is important for you-"

"It's not that," Zhengting ruffled Justin's hair, "I just don't want you to rely on me for things like this. You need to start maintaining a sort of professionalism since you're really coming into the public eye now. Why don't you ask Wangziyi which agency he's contracted to, and we'll hire someone for this."

"You're very professional." Justin argued, pouting slightly.

"I'm a broke 22 year old fresh out of college and still in debt." Zhengting reminded him, "That hardly looks good for you."

"Hey Justin!" 

They turned towards the sound of Chengcheng's voice, seeing three familiar figures behind him.

"Okay, I'm going to go now." Zhengting whispered, pressing a quick kiss to Justin's cheek, "I'll be waiting in the car."

Zhengting was halfway across the parking lot before Chengcheng and the others reached Justin. Xukun's eyes tracked the retreating figure across the parking lot. "Who was that? He looks familiar."

Justin and Chengcheng looked at each other, a silent argument transpiring between them.

"He's a friend of ours."

"He's a model." Chengcheng added, expression not even twitching at the lie.

"An  _ aspiring _ model" 

"Who works at this company."

"Who  _ wants to _ work at this company." Justin corrected, giving Chengcheng a what-are-you-doing look.

Xukun looked confused, "So.....does he work at this company?"

"No."

"Yes."

Justin elbowed Chengcheng in the ribs, "No he  _ doesn't _ ."

"That's strange, since I'm pretty sure I saw him at the concert venue yesterday."

"Yes, that was him!"

"Nope, different person."

They looked at each other again, Chengcheng raising his eyebrows imploringly and Justin widening his eyes in disbelief.

"I'm sorry," Xiaogui cut in, "Am I the only one who doesn't understand what's going on?"

"Nope, I'm lost too. Kun?"

Xukun shrugged, "I was just asking about their friend and they started doing the thing where they communicate without talking. Are you two leaving now or did you want to join us for lunch?"

"Maybe another time," Chengcheng said, sounding slightly disappointed, "See you later?"

"Of course, we look forward to working with you again."

Justin and Chengcheng got into the car, and as soon as Zhengting exited the parking lot they both began talking at once.

"Caixukun remembers you!"

"Chengcheng was trying to set you two up!"

"He said you looked familiar-"

"-so he told Kun that you were a model and worked at that agency."

"He would have come to that conclusion anyways!"

"But he still lied, does that mean he's now in more trouble than me?"

Chengcheng tipped his head, "You're in trouble? For what?"

"I gave gege's number to Wangziyi."

"Oops. I gave his number to the other two so I guess I'm in twice the trouble?"

Zhengting felt an incoming headache, they just set about a dozen new fires for Zhengting to put out. "Okay," Zhengting said, trying to keep his voice steady, "So you told them I'm a model, which, harmless since I'll never see them again, and then you made it a problem by also telling them I'm your manager, so, harmful again. Remember that thing I said about professionalism?"

Chengcheng picked up Zhengting's phone and glanced at the screen, "Oh. Xiaogui texted you."

Hands on the wheel, Zhengting reminded himself, resisting the urge to facepalm. "Okay. Um, that's fine. Everything's fine. What did his agent say?"

"Uhh, it wasn't his agent. He texted you himself, he said: 'Yo, you're Justin and Chengcheng's manager right? Can you check if they have anything scheduled tomorrow at 5pm?' and he followed up with, 'if not they should come over to our house'."

"Can we go?" Justin asked, excited, "We don't have anything right?"

" _ You _ don't have anything," Zhengting corrected, "I was talking to You Zhangjing, the singer, and he was looking for someone for a possible collaboration. I recommended Chengcheng and they said he could go in and record a demo, if this goes well your voice could make it onto his new album."

"Really? Oh my god, you're the best, how did you even get in contact with him?"

"I was cold emailing people the other day and I actually managed to get a call with the managers for both Youzhangjing and Chenlinong, that escalated and I ended up getting in direct contact with them. Zhangjing ge actually said he would prefer working with you over others since I've told him quite a bit about you, so as long as you don't screw up too badly you should get the job."

"You do things like this," Chengcheng said, soundly both exasperated and amused, "and you still say you aren't our manager? You're only backing down now because you're scared of Caixukun. He's actually really nice, you two would get along."

"I don't doubt his character," Zhengting sighed, "I doubt my own ability to function like a normal human being around him, or in any situation he's involved in. Besides, I think I could get a promotion at work, which means I could feasibly hire someone to coordinate these things for you."

"What are you going to do about the messages you already received then?" Justin asked, "Ignore them? Wouldn't that make us look worse than having our mom be our manager?"

"Ai! This kid, it's brother not mom okay? Do I look old enough to be a mom?"

"Yes." they answered in unison.

"Ugh."

~

**Zhu Zhengting:** Yes, this is Huang Minghao's manager. Is Mr. Wang looking to make an arrangement? 

**Ziyi's agent:** Since yesterday circumstances have changed, and we've come across the need to hire a vocalist alongside Mr. Justin. It would be ideal for them to already be acquainted as to ensure workplace harmony. Does Fan Chengcheng have the same availability as Justin? Here's the tentative schedule we're working by.

**Zhu Zhengting** : I'm sorry, but Fan Chengcheng may have some conflicts in his schedule, and I would need further contemplation before solidifying anything. I'll be in touch as soon as possible.

"Fan Chengcheng! Huang Minghao! Get your butts over here!"

Justin appeared at the doorway, face scrunched up, "Are we in trouble? You only use our full names when we're in trouble."

Zhengting sat up to make space for them on the bed, "Not in trouble, but Ziyi's agent said he wanted both of you to collaborate with him on a project. The problem is that I already told Zhangjing ge you agreed to his project. You guys have Wangziyi's direct contact right? Could you talk to him? His agent says he'll only hire both of you together but I'm sure he has the final say in this."

Chengcheng cringed, "Can't you do this? I'm not good with confrontation. Or negotiation."

"Practice makes perfect, just give it a try."

~

"I have to tell you something but first you have to promise not to get mad."

Zhengting glanced up warily, "What, did you lie to someone about my career again?"

"So you know how I was supposed to talk to Ziyi right?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well I told him and he was like 'of course I still want Justin even if you aren't there, but I just really need a reliable person that can also sing' and I thought, 'who do I know that is reliable and also a good singer?'"

Zhengting groaned, "Please tell me you didn't."

"And so," Chengcheng continued, "I told him, 'hey, I know someone that can do it, he's very talented and reliable and easy to work with and also very forgiving......"

"Flattery won't work on me Fan Chengcheng, I don't have time to do an audition right now-"

"Yeah....about that," Chengcheng cut in.

Zhengting rubbed his temples, a feeling of dread coming over him, "There's more?"

"You already got the job! Surprise! Haha, please say something."

"He accepted me for the job on your credibility alone?" Zhengting clarified, tone incredulous.

"Yeah, no. You know how you like to sing to yourself right."

"Fan Chengcheng...."

"I might've kinda recorded you and sent the recording to him."

"Cheng-"

"Also I gave him all your contact information and told him you were a single dad with two children." Chengcheng blurted, shifting nervously, "That's all. I'm done. Do you need ibuprofen?" 

"Okay." Zhengting said, accepting his reality, "So Wanyziyi thinks I'm some old dude with children, I'm assuming he doesn't know those children are you and Justin, and you're just hoping he doesn't notice my phone number is the same as your manager's? Did you even tell him my name?"

"Hey, on the bright side you're only doing backing vocals, so you only have to listen to the song, go to the studio and record, then send it to him. You'll never even have to meet him! Also he gave your number straight to his agent so he won't notice you're also my manager."

"I told Xiaogui you and Justin were going over tomorrow." Zhengting told him, changing the subject, "I pushed up your appointment for Zhangjing ge's project so you'd make it. Dress well and socialize with people besides each other. Don't give my phone number to anyone else."

"Got it." Chengcheng got up, hesitating by the door, "But you will do Ziyi's song right?"

Zhengting ran a hand through his hair, focus returned to his work, "Yes." he responded absently.

"And...you aren't mad at me? For all this?"

Zhengting looked up at Chengcheng's worried face, giving him a comforting smile, "Of course not. Don't worry about it okay sweetheart? I'll take care of everything, you just focus on yourself."

"Thank you gege. I love you."

"I know."


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey! You guys made it!" Xiaogui greeted them, "these people make up the rest of our friend group. Justin, Chengcheng, meet Zhangjing, Yanjun, and Linong."

Zhangjing's eyes widened, "Chengcheng? Fan Chengcheng?"

Chengcheng smiled nervously, "Yeah, that's me."

"So you're Zhengzheng's kids! It's nice to finally meet you, he literally never shuts up about you two. I don't think I've ever received a text without one of your names in it."

"Really?" Justin asked, practically preening, "What has he told you?"

"You guys know each other?" Ziyi asked, looking surprised, "I thought you two were fairly new to this line of work?"

"Our manager's very good at networking." Chengcheng supplied.

"Manager? But the one who contacted me was Zhen-”

"Hey is that pizza? Ziyi how's your new album going? I heard Justin's going to be on it." Chengcheng rambled, cutting Zhangjing off and hoping he wouldn't press the issue.

Xukun gave Ziyi a surprised look, "You already pulled them for a collaboration?"

"Not both of them," Zhangjing cut in, a smug smile on his face, "I got Chengcheng first."

"Jeez, guess I gotta be faster next time," Xiaogui complained, "I don't suppose you have any other friends in the industry?"

"Nope. I got their other friend already." Ziyi grinned, "He's doing my backing vocals."

“Are you serious? I was kidding about that! Can I borrow him? Hiring backup vocals is always a pain in the ass, since all the reputable singers would never take such a small job.”

“Sure I’ll give you his num-”

“He’s actually very busy!” Chengcheng cut in, shooting Justin a pointed look.

“Yeah! Um, work has been really bad for him,” Justin added, “Tech stuff. Promotions.”

“Yes. Promotions. Very important because the interest on student debt is crazy high.”

“Oh, his children are in college?” Ziyi asked, “how old are they?”

“Right, yeah, the debt is for his children. They’re uh, our age. 18. They’re both 18.”

“Why are you two acting all panicked?” Ziyi questioned, “If you really don’t want me to bother- huh, did you ever tell me his name?”

“He a very private per-”

“His name’s Theo.”

“You can _call_ him Theo, but that’s not his real name.” Justin corrected.

“Because he’s a very private person.” Chengcheng finished.

“Yes. Very secretive.” Justin agreed.

“You guys are doing that thing again,” Xiaogui gestured vaguely, “Where you guys ramble back and forth until you’ve dug yourselves into some elaborate lie and everyone else is just too confused to question it.”

Justin and Chengcheng turned to look at each other again, a silent argument passing between them. It continued for a while, both of them periodically shaking their head in refusal.

They finally broke eye contact, Chengcheng huffing in frustration from apparently losing the argument. 

“Okay we lied. Kind of. We forgot to tell you that the singer and our manager are the same person.” Justin made eye contact with Zhangjing, siently pleading with him to keep quiet, “We somehow thought it’d be easier to keep Ziyi from giving Xiaogui the phone number than to just clarify the situation.”

Zhangjing looked slightly confused, but thankfully he didn’t say anything. He was probably aware that Justin and Chengcheng were lying through their teeth, considering Zhengting was definitely not a father of two and paying their way through college.

Zhangjing looked Justin straight in the eye, “So your manager is a _middle aged_ man with two _biological_ children and his _real_ name is Theo?”

“Give or take a few of those adjectives, yes.” Justin responded, trying not to look nervous.

Zhangjing raised an eyebrow, “Interesting.”

Once the conversation moved on, Justin quickly typed a message into their group chat.

**Huangbaobei:** quick update gege your name is now Theo

**Huangbaobei:** sorry

**ZhuMama:** ??

**ZhuMama:** explain later

**Huangbaobei** : 👍

~

**ZhuMama:** come outside

**ZhuMama:** I’m here.

**ZhuMama:** literally the only car in front of the house I’m sure you’ll see me

**ZhuMama:** if you want to stay longer you can, just send me a message so I know you’re okay

**ZhuMama:** Fanchengcheng? Huangminghao?

**ZhuMama:** don’t make me ring the doorbell you know I don’t want to

**ZhuMama:** if this is some elaborate plan to get me to go up to the house you’re both grounded.

Zhengting sighed, running his hands through his hair restlessly. Where were they? It was already thirty minutes past the time they were supposed to be out. He rested his forehead on the steering wheel, did he really have to go knock on the door?

He jolted up when he heard a knock on the window, hitting his head on the roof of the car. Zhengting rubbed at his head, feeling it throb slightly

“Hello? Could I ask why you’re parked in front of my house?”

Zhengting kept his head low, breathing rapid. He would recognize that voice anywhere. Would it be weird if he kept his head down? There was no way he could maintain any form of composure if he looked up.

“Are you okay? Did you hurt your head?”

He took a deep breath, feeling a bit lightheaded from the hyperventilating. He continued to massage his head, using it as an excuse to keep his arm up as a barrier to hide his face.

“I was actually here to pick up my……..um……………...roommates…..” how was he supposed to refer to them? Brothers? Friends? Children?

Xukun laughed, making Zhengting’s heart melt a little, “So you are ‘ZhuMama’, I saw Justin and Chengcheng’s phones lighting up a lot so I just wanted to let you know they’re fine. They’re just passed out. I have to say though, I was expecting to see an actual mom when I walked up to your car.”

“Passed out? Have they been drinking? You didn’t let them drink did you?” Zhengting dropped his hand and turned to face Xukun, worry overriding the visceral reaction of being face to face with such a beautiful human being, "Explain. Now."

Xukun stared at him in shock for a moment before holding up his hands in defense, “No, no, of course they haven’t been drinking, they challenged Zi- I mean, one of my friends to a dance battle and tired themselves out.”

“Thank god,” Zhengting sighed in relief, shifting so that his face stayed out of the light cast by the streetlamps, “Could you wake them up? Tell them I’m here.”

“Sure, I'll tell them someone named...…...what’s your name?”

Zhengting resisted his urge to roll his eyes at the blatant attempt to get his name. He honestly didn’t even know which name he was supposed to be using anyway .

“If you tell them the time they should register what’s happening.” Zhengting told him, feeling the nerves resurface now that he knew his children were safe. The fact that Xukun was leaning closer in an attempt to make out Zhengting's features through the darkness probably didn't help.

Xukun gave a charming smile, “Why don’t you come in and wake them up? I tried to but they sleep like bricks.”

Zhengting wracked his brain for an excuse not to leave the car. Insisting that he didn’t want to get up would come off as rude, but he wasn’t even sure what his name was supposed to be at this point. Besides, Xukun supposedly recognized him, so that made things even worse.

He took a breath to calm himself before pulling on a face mask and a cap, keeping his head lowered enough that the shadow from the cap obscured the rest of his face.

Xukun made an almost offended ‘huh’ sound as Zhengting got out of the car, not so indiscreetly trying to peek at Zhengting’s face from under the rim of the hat.

Zhengting pinched his arm, hoping the pain would keep him grounded. Just walk forward. Follow him into the house. Pick up your children. Leave. Damn, his house even smells nice. He noted with relief that he couldn’t pick up the scent of alcohol.

He brushed past Xukun as they entered the house, scared his face would be more visible in the well lit interior of the house.

“Chengcheng, Justin, get up.” he shook them gently, “Get up, we have to go.”

Chengcheng cracked open an eye, “Five more minutes.” he mumbled, fingers curling around the fabric of Zhengting’s sleeve and resting his cheek against Zhengting’s hand.

“Fan Chengcheng,” he repeated, more firmly this time, “Look at your surroundings. Justin, wake up.”

Chengcheng opened his eyes again, glancing blearily around before groaning and sitting up, “Sorry mom. Didn’t mean to fall asleep here.”

“Mhm,” Zhengting shook Justin lightly, “Come on sweetheart, we have to go home.”

Justin blinked sleepily up at Zhengting, “I’m tired. Carry me?”

“Fine.” Zhengting gave in, a fond smile playing across his lips, “Just this once, let’s not make a habit of this okay?”

He scooped Justin off of the (very expensive looking) couch and stood up, trying to ignore the feeling of Xukun’s eyes boring into him.

“Thank you for taking care of them, goodnight,” 

Zhengting walked as quickly as he could while carrying another human, Chengcheng trailing sleepily behind them and mumbling almost incoherently.

“Why are you wearing that? I can’t see your face. I don’t like not being able to see your face. What time is it? If Justin woke up first would you have carried me?”

“They finally woke up?” Ziyi guessed, noticing that Justin and Chengcheng were no longer passed out on their couch.

“Their roommate came by and picked them up. Literally, in Justin’s case. He picked up a six foot tall human and walked out like it was nothing.” 

Ziyi frowned, “Why do you look so sulky?”

“I don’t look sulky.”

“Who’s sulking?” Xiaogui asked, walking into the room.

“Kun’s sulking about something.”

“I’m not sulking!” Xukun insisted, “I’m just a bit annoyed right now.”

“Annoyed about what?” Xiaogui sat down on the couch, clearly not about to let the subject drop.

“Would it be narcissistic if I was upset that someone I met didn’t like me.”

“Yes.”

Xukun threw a pillow at Xiaogui, “You are a net loss on society.”

“Who are you even talking about?” Ziyi asked, curious, “As if there’s been someone we met who isn’t weirdly obsessed with you.”

Xukun huffed, “You didn’t see Justin and Chengcheng’s roommate. He was all ‘haha I’m not going to tell you my name let me hide my entire face before stepping out of the car’ and then as soon as he got inside he started cooing at Justin and Chengcheng and forgot my entire existence.”

“Bro, sounds like sulking to me.”

Xiaogui laughed, “You’re annoyed that he was more worried about his roommates than you? Considering they’re probably close and you’re just some rando I would say it makes plenty of sense.”

“Well it sounds bad if you put it like that,” Xukun complained, “it was just the fact that he deliberately went out of his way to not tell me his name or even show his face.”

“He’s probably just shy then. Imagine your roommates going out to party with a bunch of celebrities and you, as a normal guy, have to turn up at their house. Wouldn’t you be intimidated?”

“I guess.”

“Now that you mention it, I remember Justin mentioning a roommate, I think.” Xiaogui told them, “He was sulking after Ziyi beat him in the dance battle and he said ‘if gege were here I bet he could beat him’ or something like that.”

“So he’s a dancer.” Xukun thought back to how thin the man had looked, contrasted by the ease in which he lifted Justin off the couch, “I guess that makes sense.”

“How is it that those two have so many connections so early into their careers?”

“I don’t know bro, maybe I need to hire their manager.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Huang Minghao! Fan Chengcheng! Explain this right now!”

They poked their heads into the room, “We’re definitely in trouble this time aren’t we.”

Zhengting looked down at his phone, reading out the text in an icy tone, “‘Hey Theo, you wouldn’t happen to be the manager for Chengcheng and Justin’s roommate would you? Could you tell him I need backup dancers for my music video and he should audition? THanks.’ what the hell is this? How many identities do I have now? Model, roommate, manager, is there another one I don’t know about?”

“In my defense,” Justin started meekly, “I never actually told them about you. I mentioned someone I knew being good at dancing and they made a series of correct assumptions.”

Zhengting flopped back onto the bed, suddenly feeling exhausted, “You realize that this weirdly elaborate lie only works if I keep myself out of it right? If you drag me into it the whole thing’s going to go to crap in seconds.”

Justin and Chengcheng climbed onto the bed next to him, “You know we weren’t trying to drag you into it right? We never even mentioned a roommate.”

“Mhm.” Zhengting closed his eyes, letting his breathing even out.

“Are you mad?”

Zhengting opened his eyes, turning his head to look at them, “Stop asking that. You know I’m never actually mad at you guys. I’m just worried.”

His phone began making a series of ‘ding’ sounds, drawing a frustrated groan from Zhengting. “I’m not touching that thing. Check to make sure it isn’t my boss.”

Chengcheng picked up the phone, eyes widening, “Uh, gege? It seems you’re quite popular. You have messages from Ziyi, Xiaogui, and Xukun. Also your boss, she says that the program needs to be debugged by Monday.”

Zhengting closed his eyes, feeling the headache return, “Tell her I’m already done. What do the other messages say?”

“Um,” Chengcheng looked through the messages, Justin reading them over his shoulder, “Ziyi wants you to do another layer for the vocals. He mentioned a bunch of weird octave stuff I’m not going to try to understand.”

“Go on.”

“Xiaogui’s asking whether you really work a tech job. Completely our fault, we might’ve mentioned that yesterday.”

“Ignore him. What else?”

“Kun wants to know how many clients you manage besides us. Which is code for ‘I’m asking about their roommate but I don’t want to be too obvious’.”

“Great. Because now is a wonderful time to remember how rude I was to Caixukun yesterday. Do me a favor and throw my phone out the window?”

“Okay, how about we think of a cover story instead of moping. What do you think about our model friend also being our roommate? And then only our manager would be the separate entity. Two identities are better than three right?”

“Which one of them works in tech?”

“‘Theo will work in tech, and you can just be our roommate the former model and also dancer.”

Zhengting chuckled lightly, “Former model? Did I get fired?”

Justin grinned, “How else are we going to explain you not working for the company? That way you can be Zhu Zhengting in person and become ‘Theo’ over text.”

Zhengting pinched Justin’s arm, “There will be no ‘in person’ I’ve made enough bad impressions for a lifetime. Explain the situation so that my rude behavior doesn’t reflect badly on you, move on, the subject will die and they’ll forget I ever existed.”

“They’re all extraordinarily stubborn.” Chengcheng warned, “They might not drop it so easily.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Just try to tell the truth as much as possible.”

~

Step one was easy. Bringing up the subject was as simple as changing his lockscreen to a photo of the three of them taking a selfie and then sitting next to Xukun, making sure the phone was in his line of sight when it received a message.

His phone lit up as it received a text, and Xukun instinctively glanced down at it. His eyes widened, staring at the lockscreen until it went dark again.

“Who’s that?” Xukun gestured to Chengcheng’s phone, “On your lockscreen?”

“Hm?” Chengcheng checked his phone as if he needed a refresher as to what his lockscreen was, “Oh yeah, that’s our roommate. The one you saw in the parking lot that one time?”

Xiaogui grabbed at the phone, “Hey! Let me see! The one who works as a model right?”

“Not anymore, he-”

“He was never a model, we told you that because we panicked.”

Chengcheng gave Justin an appalled look, “Why would you admit that?” he hissed, not quietly enough to escape the notice of the others.

“Because gege told us to stick to the truth as much as possible! The model thing was probably the most justifiable lie we told so why not just admit to it?”

“Why would you even need to lie about that?” Ziyi asked, looking puzzled.

“Okay, so back when we were preparing for the concert we didn’t know we needed our own makeup team. We called him, he didn’t have ID so he snuck into the building. We didn’t want to get in trouble so we just all agreed he was a model and therefore allowed to be there.”

“In our defense,” Chengcheng argued, “it wouldn’t have been a problem at all if Kun just never recognized him.”

Ziyi took a sip of coffee, looking amused, “You kids overthink everything. I barely even have the energy to think most days, much less construct elaborate lies about trivial things.”

“He also wanted to apologize for yesterday,” Justin added, “he wasn’t trying to be rude or anything, he was just freaking out a little because he’s a huge fan of you-”

Chengcheng smacked Justin, “Stop _talking_.”

“He’s a fan of mine?” Xukun asked, feeling a strage feeling of delight rising inside him, “I didn’t think he was rude by the way, so don’t worry about that.”

“If ya’ll are going to expose your roommate I’ll go ahead and expose Kunkun here too,” Xiaogui grinned gleefully, “He spent a good half hour after mystery man left sulking about being ignored. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him so whiny.”

“I wasn’t- I was just taken aback by all of the…...secrecy and discretion. He didn’t even tell me his name!”

Justin and Chengcheng looked at each other, excitement passing between them. 

“Did you..”

“I know! Just….”

“Okay, later.”

They turned away to see everyone staring at them, “Huh? Did something happen?”

“That weird silent conversation thing you two do. Is it a roommate thing? Because I’ve been living with these two for years and I can hardly understand them when they’re speaking out loud.”

Justin shrugged, “It just comes from living together for so long I guess. Zhengting ge can do it too.”

“So your roommate’s name is Zhengting?”

Justin tensed up, glancing at Chengcheng, who shook his head.

“Yeah. Zhu Zhengting.”

“Oh yeah, Zhangjing referred to you two as ‘Zhengzheng’s kids’ the other day,” Ziyi recalled, “not sure why I didn’t make that connection. For a second I thought he was referring to your manager.”

Chengcheng squeezed Justin’s hand, silently telling him to keep quiet.

“How old is your manager by the way?” Ziyi questioned, “I know his children are 18 already but I swear he doesn’t sound a day over thirty, much less forty. If you told me he was my age I’d believe you.”

Chengcheng laughed nervously, “I thought it was rude to ask for age?”

Ziyi raised an eyebrow, “Then what about names? Because I’m 99% sure Theo isn’t his real name, knowing you two.”

Chengcheng looked at Justin, urging him to say something.

“Names are a social construct?”

Chengcheng nodded earnestly, not missing a beat, “Right. A social construct given an unnecessary level of importance.”

“Okay?” Ziyi said slowly, “How else should we identify people then?”

“It’s like in that book…….” Chengcheng glanced at Justin for help.

“Metamorphosis.” he supplied.

“Right. It, uh, explores the importance of a person's role in society…”

“And how it relates to their identity. You know, the separation between the, um….”

“self-actualizaiton and society’s perception of you.” Chengcheng finished, looking proud of himself.

“Yes. That. So, uh, the moral of the story is that….”

“.....his name isn’t important?” Chengcheng tried, smiling nervously.

Ziyi pressed his lips together, trying not to laugh, “That was a very confusing and convoluted way of saying you aren’t going to tell me his name.”

Xiaogui snorted, “I just realized how boring our friend group was before you two came along. Just listening to you two ramble is entertaining.”

“Your entire friend group is so weirdly mysterious,” Ziyi commented, “I’ve been corresponding with ‘Theo’ for a while now and he’s sent me a grand total of two texts. Both are audio files. Also I can see Kun trying to search Zhengting on social media and he’s come up with nothing.”

Xukun put down his phone, slumping back in his chair, “I was just curious! Besides, what kind of person doesn’t have instagram or twitter in this day and age?”

“He has a Linkedin,” Justin offered.

“Yo, your phone’s ringing,” Xiaogui said, realizing that he never gave Chengcheng’s phone back, “here.”

Chengcheng picked it up, “Hello? Yeah we’re still at the same place. What is it? You never call unless something’s wrong.”

Justin nudged Chengcheng, who moved away, batting at Justin in irritation , “We’re in public! I’ll just tell you what he said later.”

Justin gave Chengcheng a pointed look, gesturing insistently towards the phone.

“Ok fine,” Chengcheng gave in, getting up, “We’ll be back in a second.”

“Well they’re fun,” Xiaogui said once they were gone, “I don’t think I’ve ever met two people with such chaotic sibling energy.”

“Their other roommate Zhengting seems to be an almost parental figure towards them,” Xukun remembered, thinking back to how he had acted the night before, “they’re like a small, disfunctionally functional family.”

~

“We’re home! Are you okay? Do you need hugs?”

Zhengting smiled, stress still written across his features, “I’m fine, I already worked everything out. Everything is going to be fine.”

“You didn’t need that promotion right? We’re still fine?”

Zhengting relaxed against Chengcheng’s side, running his fingers through Justin’s hair, “Of course. Nothing will change for you two. We can still afford what we used to, and I’ll sign the lease on that recording studio just like I was planning to before. Nothing will change.”

“Are you sure? We don’t need a recording studio. That room is cramped and barely fits two people in it, we’d be fine without it.”

“It may be a lousy place, but it’s still a step up from that cheap microphone you use currently. Better quality audio means better quality music. Don’t worry about costs.”

Chengcheng looked skeptical, “You’re hiding something from us. When did you start hiding things? We tell each other everything!”

“I’ve taken on some extra work to keep up with finances, that’s all. I didn’t say anything because I knew you would worry.”

“How could we not be worried? Maybe we should get more reliable jobs-”

“Don’t be like that,” Zhengting scolded, “You’re doing perfectly fine. The payment you got for that 2 hour modeling job is more than I could make in an entire day. And now you both have collaboration projects with pretty well known artists. You don’t need to go work some minimum wage job just because I failed to get a promotion.”

“Sorry. But you’ll tell us if anything’s wrong right?”

“Of course.”

“We mean if _anything_ at all goes wrong,” Justin clarified, “Not like that time you waited 27 hours to tell us you broke your arm because ‘technically nothing was wrong since the doctor said there wouldn’t be permanent damage.’”

Zhengting laughed, ruffling his hair, “I promise, I promise. Stop worrying, you’ll get wrinkles.”

~

“I can’t believe Theo ghosted me,” Xiaogui complained, “Ever since I gave him my agent’s contact he hasn’t responded to my texts.”

“Theo? As in Justin and Chengcheng’s manager?”

“Who else?”

Ziyi gave him an incredulous look, “You talk to him? Like, actual words?”

“No, we communicate through emojis,” Xiaogui said sarcastically, “Yes, we use words, what else would we use?”

“I received four messages from him this morning and they were all audio files. Which means our entire relationship can be summed up to six audio files. How’d you get him to talk?”

Xiaogui shrugged, “I just talked. He talked back. His tone is always very dry, sarcastic, or overly formal, but I think that might just be his sense of humor. What does his voice sound like by the way? I need someone for my new song and he seems easy to work with.”

“I needed you to critique my song anyway, I already applied the backing vocals to this one.”

Xiaogui listened through it, nodding, “Dude, good job on this one, I like it. The backing vocals were his? Did you tune them? He sounds super young.”

“He does, doesn't he? It sounds good so I’m not going to complain, but I’m guessing he’s a lot younger than Justin and Chengcheng make us think. Remember when Zhangjing asked about him?”

Xiaogui frowned in thought, “Yeah? I think.”

“Well after that they said that Zhangjing’s description was correct, _give or take a few adjectives_. So I’m guessing that Theo isn’t his real name and his children are adopted or something, which allows for the possibility for him to be a lot younger than their biological parents.”

“Are you two gossiping about Justin and Cheng’s friend group again?” Xukun asked, tone amused.

“What else would we do?” Xiaogui complained, “Come home from work to talk about more work?”

Xukun sat down, propping his feet up on the coffee table, “Why not? How’s filming going for you?”

“Pretty good. Oh yeah, I have this one backup dancer that refuses to take off his mask. I know it’s required to stay in costume and all that but I don’t even think I’ve seen him eat or drink.”

“Bro, how do you even know it’s the same person? If they all wear those hideous masks you chose you can’t even tell them apart.”

“Hey!” Xiaogui exclaimed, indignant, “The masks I chose look cool! And I remember him because his body proportions look different, and the director told him off for drawing too much attention to himself when dancing.”

“Really?” Xukun raised his eyebrows, “I can’t tell if you need a better director or better backup dancers. He was reprimanded for being too good at dancing? Just hold your other dancers to a higher standard.”

“Not everyone gets a cooperative staff like you do,” Xiaogui sighed, “They want to get this done as soon as possible, and it’s easier to tone someone down than bring everyone else up.”

“Send him my way, I’ll hire him for my next thing, whatever it is.”

Xiaogui gave Xukun a skeptical look, “Don’t you always use women for all of your stuff?”

“Not voluntarily,” Xukun defended, “My last manager said it would sell better if I did that, but I’m no longer following that advice so…”

“Whatever you say dude.”

~

“Gege! Xiaogui asked me to take a look at his rough draft music video, do you want to wat- oh, are you working?”

Zhengting held a finger to his lips, signaling for Justin to stay quiet as he continued to speak on the phone. Justin backed out of the room, slightly disappointed. Zhengting hardly ever spent any time with them anymore.

He was always out working, and even when he was home he was always on his computer or phone, continuing to work.

Justin curled up next to Chengcheng on the couch, “Zhengzheng’s busy again.”

Chengcheng rubbed his back comfortingly, “It’s okay, tomorrow’s Saturday, which means he won’t have work right? We can spend some time together, make sure he isn’t overworking himself. Then we have that meeting with the others for status updates and peer review.”

“Yeah.” Justin said, still sounding glum, “If peer reviewing goes well then we’ll have our songs out soon right? Then we’d be able to help out with finances more.”

“It’ll go well,” Chengcheng assured him, “Zhangjing told me we probably already have our final draft. How about you? You get to work on the same song as Zheng ge right? Lucky.”

Justin brightened slightly, “Yeah, his voice sounds really good when recorded professionally like that, and it’s fun working with Ziyi, I’m learning a lot. I’m only in two of the songs but Zhengting ge is doing background stuff for every song on the album!”

“Really? I thought it was only for the songs you were on?”

“Originally he wanted you to do a vocal accompaniment, but since Zheng ge took your place he switched it to backing vocals only, and backing vocals sound good on any song.”

“Is that where he’s been disappearing to all the time? He was doing recordings?”

Justin nodded, “Yeah, Ziyi gave us both access to one of his recording studios, so Zhengting can record things on his own schedule and just send Ziyi the files.”

Justin grinned, leaning towards Chengcheng, “Did you know Zhengting ge has sent Ziyi 31 different audio files and only one actual text with words? Ziyi complains about it all the time, guess what that text said?”

“How would I know?”

“Okay, so Ziyi was all like ‘Thank you so much for your work, you really went above and beyond, blah, blah, how about I treat you to dinner so I can give you your paycheck and discuss how you want to be credited for your work.’”

“Yeah?”

“And Zhengting sent back, ‘No need to credit me for anything. Payments can be made to Huang Minghao.’”

“Oh wow, that’s cold.”

“You’re cold?” Zhengting’s voice sounded from behind them, “It’s almost 80 degrees in here.”

“Zhengting ge!” They pulled him down onto the couch with them, “Why didn’t you tell us Wang Ziyi invited you to dinner?”

“Why didn’t you tell us that you shot him down in cold blood?” Justin added, “He was sulking. And he _never_ sulks. But in his defense I don’t think he’s used to being rejected like that. Or at all.”

“I’m just trying to keep my distance!” Zhengting defended, “Not to reduce your friends to a sum of their merits, but being around them is really good for your careers, I don’t want to risk anything.”

Zhengting took in their pouty expressions, sighing, “Okay I admit that was dumb. I’ll send him an apology tomorrow.”

“Do it in the form of an audio file,” Chengcheng snickered, “I bet he’d have a fun reaction to that. He’s so put together all the time that it’s fun to see him let loose and complain.”

Zhengting rolled his eyes fondly, “Such a rude child. If anyone asks I didn’t raise you."


	5. Chapter 5

“Yanjun’s leaving for the airport soon, so he’s going first. And I assume Zhangjing is going to be your plus one?”

“Nah, he rejected me when I asked,” Yanjun said, sighing in mock sadness, “Turns out his hatred for large cities trumphs his love for me.”

Zhangjing smacked him, “Shut up. You know I hate LA.”

“Who are you taking then?”

Yanjun pouted, “Zhangjing told me to take Zhengting because we make an aesthetically good pair, but he rejected me too. I don’t think my ego’s ever been this bruised.”

“Zhengting? As in Justin and Chengcheng’s roommate?” Xukun clarified.

“Yup. We’d look so pretty together, but he’s busy raising these two,” Yanjun gestured towards Justin and Chengcheng, “so he doesn’t have time to fly to LA for a fashion show. Speaking of which, I need to leave now. Good luck with everything.”

Once Yanjun left, Zhangjing clapped his hands, “Okay, who wants to share their stuff next? My song’s already done so ya’ll can just hear it once it comes out.”

Xiaogui perked up, “My music video’s almost done, wanna see what I have so far?”

They gathered around the computer, eyes fixed to the screen.

About a minute in Chengcheng frowned, glancing at Justin, who had the same confused look on his face. 

_ ‘Is that Zhengting’s voice?’  _ Justin asked silently.

_ ‘I’d recognize his voice anywhere. Is that Zhengting?’ _ Chengcheng nodded his head towards the screen.

_ ‘I’d recognize his dancing anywhere too.’ _

_ 'Did he tell you he was doing this?' _

_ 'no.' _

_ 'Financial thing then?' _

_ 'Probably.' _

_ 'He's in trouble once we get home.' _

_ ‘So much trouble.’ _

They turned their eyes back to the screen, hoping no one noticed their momentary lapse in attention. 

~

“You really don’t have to drive us home you know.”

“It’s fine,” Ziyi responded, “Why make you spend money on a taxi when I could just send you home? Besides, Xiaogui ran off to filming and Kun has a meeting so it’ll be boring at home alone.”

Justin laughed, “You just want to see where we live.”

Ziyi tried to hold back a smile, “It’s hard not to be curious when you guys act all secretive all the time. Especially when all your friends sound interesting and you lie about seemingly trivial details.”

“Hey! When have we lied?”

“You cannot listen to Theo’s voice and tell me he’s anywhere near forty.” Ziyi deadpanned, “But I can’t think of a reason you would lie about that. What was it you said that one time? You were going to tell the truth as much as possible?”

“Fine. He’s in his twenties and his children aren’t actually biological.”

“Or legal.” Chengcheng muttered under his breath.

“See? Wasn’t that hard was it? By the way, he randomly sent me a clip of him singing this random song. What is that supposed to mean?”

Justin and Chengcheng burst out laughing, “Oh my god he actually did it. I can’t believe-” Chengcheng cleared his throat, composing himself, “I think he might have been apologizing for rejecting you. Maybe it’s an inside joke now? The no words only audio file thing.”

“Ugh, I can’t tell if that’s endearing or extremely annoying. Is this the right place?”

“Yup, do you-” Justin looked at Chengcheng, who shrugged, “do you want to come in? Gege probably made lunch.”

“Really? If that’s okay, sure.” Ziyi kept a calm demeanor, but his excitement was betrayed by the impatient fidgeting of his hands.

“Gege!” Justin called as he entered the house, “We have a guest! It’s WangZiyi!”

Chengcheng walked up to the dinner table noticing a note along with several plates of still warm food.

**_I'm off running some errands. Food is on the table. It’s Justin’s turn to wash dishes and Chengcheng’s turn to clean the living room. I promise I’ll be home before dinner._ **

**_Love,_ **

**_Zhengting_ **

“He’s working again?” Justin whined, reading the note over Chengcheng’s shoulder.

Chengcheng nudged Justin slightly, giving him the remember-what-happened-earlier look. Realization crossed Justin’s face, wiping away any residual disappointment.

“Hey Ziyi, when does Xiaogui finish filming?”

Ziyi frowned, confused by the sudden subject change, “Oh. Um, they should just be wrapping up, so an hour or two.”

“Do you want to stay until then? I’m sure Zhengting will be back by then.”

Chengcheng nodded, “Yeah, you can have lunch and then we’ll play video games or something.”

Ziyi registered their change in tone, but didn’t comment on it, instead sitting down at the table, “Sure. Why not.”

“Why don’t you give me a tour of the house?” Ziyi suggested after they ate.

“There’s not much to tour. You can practically see the entire house from here. You can come into the bedroom if you want. That one’s ours and the other is gege’s.” Justin told him, pointing, “But gege’s bed is softer so we usually just sleep with him.”

Ziyi nodded in acknowledgement, following them into their bedroom. It was a fairly small room, taken up mostly by a recording set up they had in one corner. Pictures littered the wall, arranged in no particular pattern.

One wall consisted entirely of the three of them taking selfies with a different background each time. The other was mostly pictures of Justin and Chengcheng, candid shots probably taken by Zhengting.

“He takes pictures like a mom on vacation,” Chengcheng said when he noticed the subject of Ziyi’s attention, “But he always makes us look good somehow so I’m not complaining.”

Ziyi walked over to a cluster of photos that looked like someone dancing, noting with surprise that it was Zhengting, “You mentioned before that Zhengting dances? He looks like he’s on stage here.”

“He minored in dance at university,” Justin told him, “He was really good at it, but he majored in computer science and went into software engineering right after college. Probably because of us actually, since he took us in at around the same time.”

Ziyi was relieved when his phone sounded, considering he had no idea how he would’ve responded to that. Took them in? That implied that they'd been kicked out of somewhere at some point. “Gui’s already done filming.” he said, reading the text, “he’s a bit whiny because apparently they gathered everyone just to film a 5 second clip 20 times over.”

“You don’t have to leave though right?” Justin asked hopefully, “I’m sure Zhengting will be home soon, besides, we haven’t finished the tour. Come on, I’ll show you gege’s room.”

Ziyi followed them, confused by their insistence that he stay until Zhengting came home, not that he really minded of course.

Zhengting’s room was a bit bigger, occupied mostly by a large bed, a small desk with a computer on it tucked in the corner. A few framed pictures decorated the top of the dresser. 

Justin made a face as he looked over them, “Ugh, he still keeps a photo of this douchebag?”

Chengcheng glanced over to look at the frame, making a similar disgusted face, “We should burn it.”

Ziyi peered curiously over their shoulders, seeing a picture of Zhengting and someone he didn’t recognize, “Who’s that?”

“A person from university.”

“They almost dated.”

“Except he was a total jerk."

“A patronizing asshole.”

"Low IQ."

“3.1 GPA.”

“Fluncked out of managerial econ.”

Ziyi couldn’t help but laugh at their petulant expressions, “You really don’t like the guy huh?”

“If you met him you’d hate him too,” Justin promised, “Do you think he would notice if I took the pic-”

He was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. Justin and Chengcheng perked up, reminiscent of a dog’s reaction when their owner comes home.

“I’m home! Did yo-” Zhengting stopped mid sentence, staring blankly at Ziyi.

Ziyi walked up and held out his hand, “Nice to meet you Zhengting, I’m Wangziyi, a friend of Justin and Chengcheng’s.”

Zhengting shook his hand, still looking a bit dazed, “Nice to meet you, would you like something to drink? Water? Tea?”

“I’m fine,” Ziyi assured him, “Why don’t you sit down for a bit, you seem tired. Have you been overworking yourself again?”

Zhengting looked startled, shooting Justin and Chengcheng a what-is-happening look.

_ ‘He’s just being nice.’ _

_ ‘Why is he acting like he knows me?’ _

_ ‘Don’t worry about it.’ _

_ ‘You two are up to something aren’t you.’ _

_ ‘You started it.’ _

_ ‘I did?’ _

“Oh wow, you do the sibling telepathy thing too huh?” Ziyi commented, “It’s always fun to watch.”

Zhengting turned to Ziyi, smiling sheepishly, “I’m sorry, that was rude. It really is nice to meet you,” he touched Chengcheng on the shoulder, “I’ll be in my room if you need me okay?”

“Hey, no, nope.” Chengcheng herded him towards the couch, sitting him down next to Ziyi, “You’re staying.”

“I am?” Zhengting glanced at Ziyi, “Is something going on?”

Ziyi shrugged, “They seem weirdly excited for me to meet you. I mean, of course I’m excited to meet you too, not sure if you’re aware, but you come up in conversation quite often with my friend group.”

“I do?” 

“I heard you rejected Yanjun, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone other than Zhangjing do that. Justin and Chengcheng mentioned that you were good at dancing too.”

“They’re just exagerra- did they leave?” Zhengting glanced up, noticing that Justin and Chengcheng disappeared. 

Ziyi looked away from Zhengting, surprised, “How did I not notice them leave?”

Zhengting sighed, exasperated, “I’m sorry about that, I’ll go get them-”

“No, stay. When else am I ever going to get to talk to you? I’m surprised we’ve never met until now, considering how many mutual friends we have.”

Zhengting sat back down, “I thought it was just Justin and Chengcheng?”

“Plus Yanjun, Zhangjing, and Linong. And probably Justin and Chengcheng’s manager too. Any chance you’ll tell me his real name?”

“Huh, I didn’t realize you knew Zhangjing ge and Nongnong. You’re in contact with Justin and Chengcheng’s manager?” Zhengting asked, trying to sound nonchalant. After all, how often do you get to ask someone about yourself without sounding self centered?

“Yeah, he did vocals for my new album. I think we’re friends? Kind of?”

“Kind of?”

“I mean, the only non work related thing he’s ever sent me was a clip of him singing, and he seemed against meeting me in person so I can’t be sure.”

“Is he good at it? Singing, I mean.” Zhengting tried to keep a casual tone, hoping he didn’t seem overly interested or nervous.

“Yeah, of course. What, never heard him sing before? I thought he was pretty close to your family.”

“Yeah, I just wanted your opinion. You know, as a professional.” Zhengting kept a neutral tone, preening inwardly at the slight praise, “You dance right?” he asked, steering the subject away from his second identity, “What’s your favorite type of song to dance to?”

~

“Where were you? I’ve been bored to death at home alone.”

“Sorry bro,” Ziyi apologized, unable to keep the grin off his face, “I actually went over to Justin and Chengcheng’s house. Talked with their roommate for a bit.”

“Really? That means I’m one of the two people in our group that’s never met him!” Xiaogui complained, “It’ll be like when Zhangjing showed up all buddy buddy with everyone and I didn’t even know who he was.”

Ziyi laughed, “He was just too intimidated to introduce himself to you one on one. Don’t worry, I'll make sure you meet Zhengting before Kun. Did you know his dancing style is almost exactly opposite of mine? He does the modern, contemporary type dancing. I invited him to dance with me but he said no.”

“I don’t know if it’s sad or hilarious that you keep getting rejected by Justin and Chengcheng’s friends.”

“Oh yeah, I got confirmation that Theo was in his twenties,” Ziyi said, slightly proud of himself, “And we’re talking again. Kind of.”

“Talking?" Xiaogui laughed, "You mean he’s sending you audio files?” 

Ziyi smirked, “Better than being ghosted.”

“Hey!" Xiaogui protested, slightly indignant, "He said he’s just busy. I thought your album was finished? What would he even be sending you?”

“He just sends me clips of him singing. All songs that I’ve recommended to him, or talked about on twitter.”

“That’s actually kind of cool,” Xiaogui admitted, “His texts to me are usually ‘go to sleep’ or ‘don’t microwave raw chicken’, stuff like that.”

“Your fault for setting that precedent.”

“Are you really not supposed to microwave raw chicken?”

“Bro, how would I know?”

~

“What was that?” Zhengting leaned against the doorframe, finding Justin and Chengcheng lounging on his bed scrolling through their phones, “inviting someone over and then leaving me to entertain them?”

“I thought you wanted to get to know them.” Justin shot back, sounding petulant, “That’s why you became a backup dancer for Xiaogui right?”

Zhengting groaned, “Is this what this is about? Linkai didn’t even know it was me, I was hired through his agent.”

Justin raised an eyebrow, “Since when did you start calling Xiaogui ‘Linkai?”

He sighed, “I didn’t want to tell you before you went to meet them because I knew you’d be weird about it and they’d notice. Then you guys would do the ‘improvise on the spot by weaving elaborate lies’ thing. And I’d add ‘Austin’ onto my list of identities alongside Theo and Zhengting.”

“Fair enough,” Chengcheng shrugged, “Why did you reject Ziyi again? If he invites you to dance that means you can use an actual dance studio again, instead of our cramped living room.”

“Are you kidding? I’m not going to dance in front of  _ WangZiyi!  _ I’d probably make a fool out of myself. It’s bad enough that I’ve made a thing out of me singing for him.”

“Well that one’s completely your fault,” Justin laughed, “And I’m totally telling Xiaogui he hired you without even knowing. He’s gonna flip out.”

“After you wash the dishes like you were supposed to.”

Justin groaned.


	6. Chapter 6

_ 12:31 pm _

**NotTheo:** [file.mp3]

**WangZiyi:** You really suit that song. 

**WangZiyi:** Just found out your actual age today, not really surprised but it was nice to get confirmation.

  
**  
** **WangZiyi:** Have you heard Zhangjing’s new song? He released it today.

  
  


_ 2:43 pm _   
  
**NotTheo:** [file.mp3]

  
  


_ 3:11 pm _

**WangZiyi:** Never realized how wide your vocal range was.

**WangZiyi:** I’ll keep that in mind next album. You  _ will _ be doing my backing vocals right?

**WangZiyi:** I’ll take it as a yes if you don’t respond.

  
  


_ 7:58 pm _   
  


**NotTheo:** [file.mp3]

**WangZiyi:** That was fast.

**WangZiyi:** I posted that song recommendation 15 minutes ago.

**WangZiyi:** If I were to post another one would you call me and just sing to me directly?

**WangZiyi:** Just did it. If you don’t call me within the next half hour I’ll call you.

**NotTheo:** I don’t really rap.

**WangZiyi:** So you can use words. 

**WangZiyi:** The song isn’t completely rap. Besides, I wanted to hear you try. Even if it’s not really your thing.

  
  


_ 5:35 am _   
  


**NotTheo:** [file.mp3]

  
  


_ 7:09 am _   
  
**WangZiyi:** Did you really just sing the 5 seconds of vocals the song had?

**WangZiyi:** Lame.

**WangZiyi:** Why the hell were you up at 5 am?

  
  
~

_ 7:21 pm _

**Linkai:** how could u not tell me you got Zhengting hired for my  _ own _ music video?

**Linkai:** im betrayed 

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Do you know the names of your other background dancers?

**Linkai:** ofc

**Linkai:** ok fine not all of them

**Linkai:** but a good majority

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Your agent didn’t mention I had to pass every potential hire by you.

**Linkai:** you don’t but this is different

**Linkai:** at least tell me which one he is

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Filming’s over so you won’t see him again anyway.

**Linkai:** if I invite everyone to a ‘good job’ party he’d show up wouldnt he? for politeness

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Please don’t.

**Linkai:** i bet he was the one reprimanded for standing out too much

**Linkai:** casually talented seems to be the vibe of all chengstin’s friends

**Linkai** : youshould introduce me

**Linkai:** so i wont be the last person to meet him

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Oh wow, look at the time. Gotta get back to that ‘boring tech job’ of mine.

**Linkai:** hey! I didn’t mean it in a bad way

**Linkai:** dont even try to pretend you dont think its boring too

**Linkai:** i’m sure you had a much better time singing for me and Ziyi

**Linkai:** how am i supposed to pay you for that btw

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Give the paycheck to Justin or Chengcheng.

**Linkai:** okay so if I were to invite you to dinner would you reject me too

**Linkai:** or do you like me more than ziyi

**Chengstin’s Manager:** I like you both equally, therefore I’m compelled to reject your invitation too.

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Please eat something other than takeout tonight. 

**Linkai:** wel since you rejected my dinner offer you no longer get to control what i eat

**Linkai:** unless you reconsider

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Goodnight. Sleep before 1 am or I’m ignoring you tomorrow.

~

“Yo, Ziyi!” Xiaogui shouted, putting down his phone, “Did you know I hired Zhengting for my last music video?”

Ziyi looked up from his dinner, “You did? Why didn’t you tell me? What was he like?”

“I dunno man, I didn’t even know I hired him until Justin told me. I think he might’ve been the one who didn’t want to show his face.”

“Well mission accomplished then, you met him before Kun. Now all of Kun’s friends know Zhengting except for him.”

“It doesn’t count,” Xiaogui insisted, “I didn’t even talk to him! Or see his face! Which puts me on the same ground as Kun. Do you have his contact information?”

“Nope.” Ziyi said, sounding slightly irritated, “He said no when I asked for his number, gave me his email instead. Did I mention it was his work email?”

“You getting rejected will never not be funny.”

~

“Ge! We’re home! We brought a guest!”

Zhengting emerged from his room, hair messy and shirt falling off his shoulders. His eyes widened when he saw Xiaogui, quickly straightening out his hair and buttoning up his shirt.

“Linkai! What are you doing here?”

Xiaogui tipped his head slightly, “That’s funny, literally no one calls me Linkai except Theo. Hi, nice to meet you. Did you just wake up?”

Zhengting fidgeted nervously, “Uh, yeah. Sorry about my appearance. It’s nice to meet you too Li- um, Xiaogui.”

He glanced at Justin and Chengcheng, raising an eyebrow.

_ ‘is this the thing where you leave me to entertain him or are you two sticking around?’ _

__

_ ‘nope, we’re out.’ _

Zhengting sighed, not trying to stop them as they brushed past him and into their room. “Guess you’re stuck with me. Unless you feel like leaving and coming back when Justin and Chengcheng aren’t…….busy.” he finished lamely, not sure what their excuse for leaving was.

“Nah, I’ll stay. So, what do you do?”

Zhengting sat down next to him, giving in to the situation, “I’m a software engineer.”

“I’d say that’s boring but from experience that doesn’t go down well.”

“I’m pretty sure the only other software engineer you know is Theo, you called his job boring?”

“You’re making it sound worse than it is,” Xiaogui said defensively, “We both understood it was a joke. Besides, with a voice like his he could probably go into music if he wanted to.”

Zhengting tried not to let his happiness show, “You think he’s a good singer?”

“I haven’t heard him sing much, since Ziyi won’t let me listen to the voice recordings Theo sends him. Do you sing too? Rap? Anything besides dance?”

“Everyone sings for fun,” Zhengting said, dodging the question, “What other hobbies do you have? Besides the ones needed for your career?”

Xiaogui’s eyes lit up, and he began to talk about everything from fashion to video games. Zhengting was glad to listen, finding that they actually got along really well. They were both periodically overdramatic and childish, with similar senses of humor.

“I completely forgot what I was here for! Dude, why didn’t you tell me you got hired for my music video? I had to find out from Justin!”

“What was I supposed to do?” Zhengting argued, “I was a background dancer! I couldn’t just walk up to you, the person the whole thing is for, and introduce myself. It’d seem like I was asking for attention or special treatment or something.”

“You could’ve just  _ not  _ worn your mask all the time,” Xiaogui shot back, “I would’ve recognized you and approached you first. Admit it, you were trying to hide your identity.”

“Ok fine.” Zhengting slumped back against the sofa, pouting, “You were intimidating and I didn’t want you to notice me. The only reason I even took the job was because I could hide my face and also I really needed the money.”

“ _ I’m _ intimidating?” Xiaogui asked, incredulous, “You’re like, six feet tall, and apparently deceptively strong. What about  _ me _ is intimidating?”

Zhengting gestured vaguely in Xiaogui’s general direction, “Your entire demeanor. The cold, detached look you have. Also the fact that you’re an actual celebrity and I’m literally nobody.”

“You think I’m cold and detached?” Xiaogui asked in mock offense, “I’m hurt,”

“You  _ look _ cold and detached,” Zhengting corrected, smiling, “In reality you’re just aloof and super melodramatic.”

“I’m more approachable than Kunkun and Ziyi then?” Xiaogui confirmed, sounding smug.

“Ugh, Definitely. I think I lost five years off my lifespan solely from the stress of meeting them. Do you know how nervewracking it is for me to interact with them? With Caixukun and his stupid smile and Ziyi always inviting me places.”

“If it makes you feel any better I’m getting quite a laugh out of you constantly shafting both of them. I don’t think either of them have ever had this much trouble getting people to do what they want.”

“Stop teasing me,” Zhengting whined, shoving Xiaogui lightly, “You know I don’t mean to come off as snobbish or wishwashy.”

Zhengting linked arms with Xiaogui, leaning against him, “Thank god they brought you this time around, you’re so similar to Justin and Chengcheng that this isn’t anywhere near as nerve wracking as meeting Wangziyi or Caixukun. Oh god, what if they bring Caixukun here next? I’m going to actually die.”

Xiaogui jabbed Zhengting in the ribs, “Stop cutting off the circulation in my arm. And Kunkun isn’t scary, he likes to act all cool but he’s a huge dork. Same with Ziyi. 

“I think,” Xiaogui flicked Zhengting’s ear, “That you’re just nervous because they’re good looking.”

“That’s not true!” Zhengting denied, putting on an overly indignant expression, “That would imply that all my other friends are ugly! I think your theory dies at the fact that I’m friends with Yanjun, who’s literally the dictionary definition of attractive.”

“Hey, dance for me.”

“Excuse me?”

“You said you were too intimidated by Ziyi to dance in front of him, but I’m not a professional dancer like he is. Besides,” Xiaogui tried for a sweet smile, “you said I was approachable and easy to be around right?”

Zhengting wrinkled his nose, smacking Xiaogui, “Ugh, playing cute doesn’t suit you. Never do that again.”

When Chengcheng and Justin finally returned to the room they found Zhengting and Xiaogui collapsed against each other in a laughing heap.

“Gege, when is he leaving?” Justin asked, pouting slightly, “He’s been here for hours! It’s almost time for dinner.”

Zhengting shrugged, “I don’t know Huangminghao, I thought he was  _ your _ guest?”

Xiaogui draped himself over Zhengting’s shoulders, “Zhengzheng’s mine now, you guys can take Ziyi or Xukun. Or both. I’m keeping him.”

Zhengting giggled, making no move to dislodge Xiaogui, “Does that mean I get to live in your house now? From the two seconds I was in your house I remember you have a gorgeous couch.”

“Zhengting!” Chengcheng whined, “I’m hungry.”

Zhengting laughed, sitting up, “Okay sweetheart. I’ll go make dinner. Are you two good with Linkai staying or should I kick him out now?”

“If you’ll give me your number I’ll be happy to leave,” Xiaogui suggested, “If you reject me like you did Ziyi I’m going to be sad.”

“Be sad then,” Zhengting said flippantly, lifting his chin snobbishly, “If you ever need me just go through Justin or Chengcheng.”

Xiaogui rolled his eyes, “Drama queen. I’ll go now then, I just realized I have about a hundred texts from Ziyi and Xukun asking where I am.”

Zhengting made a heart with his hands as Xiaogui left, “Come by soon!”

Xiaogui grinned, blowing Zhengting a kiss, “See you later, muah!”

“He’s our friend. We’re not annoyed.” Justin muttered to himself after Xiaogui left.

“Really?” Chengcheng interjected, “I thought he was our friend but also we’re kinda annoyed right now.”

Zhengting rolled his eyes at them, “None of that. I know you get grumpy when you’re hungry,” he pinched Chengcheng on the cheek as he walked by, “I’ll make dinner.”

~

“Bro, where were you? And since when do you not answer your phone?”

Xiaogui walked into the house, smelling the familiar scent of takeout, “I went over to Zhengzheng’s place, almost stayed for dinner but his children seemed very hangry and in need of attention.”

“Zhengzheng? Are you talking about Zhengting or is this another person.”

“I’m talking about Zhengting,” Xiaogui grinned at Ziyi, “I took a video of him dancing since you mentioned he wouldn’t dance for you.”

“I’m sorry,” Xukun interrupted, “I’ve been busy for a few days and all of a sudden you both know this Zhengting guy? When did this even happen?”

“We kinda just forced Chengstin to bring us to their place,” Xiaogui told him, hiding his phone before Ziyi could take it, “Nope, if you don’t share your clips of Theo singing for you I don’t have to show you the video of Zhengting dancing.”

“Theo sings for you?” Xukun questioned, looking even more confused, “What even- when did you guys start talking to them? Did you add two more people to our friend group without me knowing?”

“I mean, we’re not friends really,” Ziyi said, “I just recommend music to Theo and he sings it for me. With Zhengting I’ve only met him once and he refused both my invitation to dance together and request for his phone number in the span of an hour.”

“Theo kinda just acts like an exasperated mother to me,” Xiaogui said, “But I would say I’m friends with Zhengting, he said I could go over whenever.”

“Really?” Ziyi looked surprised, “He seemed kind of reserved to me.”

“Hey, if it makes you feel better he didn’t give me his phone number either.”

Xukun looked slightly betrayed, “I’m the only one not talking to these two? Literally every single one of my friends know this Zhengting guy now. Except for me.”

Xiaogui gave him a smug look, “That’s how I felt when Zhangjing and Linong were brought in. Besides, Zhengzheng’s scared of you, so the befriending him thing is going to be real fun. To watch at least.”

“Why is he scared of me?” Xukun’s voice bordered on a whine, “Ziyi looks ten times scarier than I do.”

“Just because I’m tall doesn’t mean I’m sca-”

“Zhengzheng’s kinda scared of Ziyi too,” Xiaogui mentioned offhandedly, “If that makes you feel any better.”

Ziyi looked slightly offended, “He’s scared of me?”

“Maybe intimidated is a better word.” Xiaogui amended, “he told me I was intimidating too before today, that’s why he didn’t talk to me on set.”

“On set?”

“Oh yeah, I accidentally hired him for my music video..”

“How did you  _ accidentally _ hire him?” Xukun asked incredulously.

“Because Theo is a traitor.” Xiaogui stated, turning his attention to the food on the table. 

“Yes, because that is an explanation we all understand.”

“Justin said Zhengting had Linkedin right? Ziyi remembered, “Do you think he’ll have his contact information there?”

“How did I not think of that?” Xiaogui pulled out his phone, and Xukun noticed that the lockscreen was changed to a picture of him and Zhengting. Didn’t they just meet today?

“Yup, his phone number’s listed! Also his profile picture is so cute, I’m going to tease him about it at some point- huh? What the-”

Xiaogui stared at his phone, disbelieving. His phone already had the phone number saved under a contact. “Dude, his phone number’s the same as Theo’s. Oh my god they’re the same person. Guy in his twenties raising two children and managing Justin and Chengcheng’s careers. It’s Zhengting.”

“Are you serious?”

“He is so dead,” Xiaogui muttered gleefully, “I’m gonna love hearing the three of them explain this one.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Linkai:** ZHU ZHENGTING

**Linkai:** YOU TRAITOR

**Linkai:** HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME

**Chengstin’s Manager** **:** Oh, you found out.

**Chengstin’s Manager** **:** Is this just a you thing or did you tell all of them?

**Linkai:** i told them

**Linkai:** you have a lot of explaining to do mister

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Techinically not my fault since Justin and Chengcheng decided to introduce me and their manager as two different people.

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Did you know I was briefly a middle aged divorcee.

**Chengstin’s Manager:** But that didn’t last long because of my voice.

**Linkai:** ok I believe this was mostly chengstin’s fault

**Linkai:** but still

**Linkai:** to find out from linkedin of all people

**Chengstin’s Manager:** I was going to tell you soon.

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Tomorrow actually.

**Chengstin’s Manager** **:** I just wanted to run it by Justin and Chengcheng first.

**Linkai:** i’ll forgive you if you make me food

**Linkai** **:** Justin and Cheng say you’re a good cook

**Chengstin’s Manager** **:** If it means you’ll eat actual food I’ll make you food whenever you want.

**Chengstin’s Manager:** Don’t quote me on that.

~

**Ziyi:** So, I just found out you’re actually Zhengting.

**Ziyi:** Xiaogui already gave me your explanation so you don’t need to explain again.

**Ziyi:** But we’ve spoken in person already so will you use words now?

**Ziyi** : Not that I don’t love hearing you sing.

**NotTheo:** I’m so so sorry about this whole situation.

**NotTheo:** Please don’t be mad at Justin or Chengcheng for lying.

**NotTheo** **:** It was all just a misunderstanding that got out of hand.

**NotTheo** **:** And technically at this point most of our story wasn’t a lie. We never said that I _wasn’t_ their manager.

**NotTheo** : And you already knew I was in my twenties and Theo wasn’t my actual name.

**NotTheo:** Of course that doesn’t make it okay I’m not trying to justify anything.

**NotTheo:** Just explaining.

**Ziyi** **:** Calm down I’m not mad.

**Ziyi:** Also very true all the signs were there we just didn’t notice.

**Ziyi:** I actually wanted to ask

**Ziyi** **:** Are you actually intimidated by me?

**Ziyi:** Is that why you're apologizing so profusely with me but you just bribed Xiaogui with food?

**NotTheo:** Linkai said something didn’t he.

**NotTheo:** People you don’t know are always a bit intimidating, I’ve only met you once and you have this reputation already, of course I was intimidated.

**NotTheo:** I think apprehensive is probably a better way to describe it actually.

**Ziyi:** So if I invited you to come dance with me again would you still reject me?

**NotTheo:** What time do you want to meet?

~

**Caixukun:** Did you want to get coffee with me sometime?

**Caixukun:** literally all of my friends are already friends with you

**Caixukun:** so I thought we should probably meet at some point

~

“Justin. Chengcheng. Caixukun just texted me. What do I do.”

Chengcheng held out his hand and Zhengting passed his phone over to him.

“Oh wow, the fallout from this is fun.” Chengcheng grinned as he looked through all the new messages, “Just tell him you’ll get coffee with him. You’ve met him twice and managed not to make a fool out of yourself so you’ll be fine.”

“Are you kidding? The first time I acted like an idiot and the second time I acted like a jerk.” Zhengting stressed, “There’s no way I won’t do something stupid.”

“The first time you met he thought you were hot, the second time you met, according to Xiaogui at least, he was hitting on you. What do you have to lose here?”

“I’m telling him you’ll meet him tomorrow at 9am.” Chengcheng told him, holding Zhengting’s phone out of reach so he couldn’t take it back, “Does 9am work for you?”

“No, I told Wangziyi I’d dance with him.”

Chengcheng pouted, deleting the message, “Okay, how about noon?”

“Linkai’s coming over for lunch.”

“He is? Okay, how about 4pm?”

“I thought we were doing coffee?”

Chengcheng groaned, “Okay, screw it, I’m telling him to come over right now.”

“Fan Chengcheng!” Zhengting tried to grab his phone, but Justin climbed into his lap, limiting his mobility, “It’s too late to be inviting people over!”

“He said yes!” Chengcheng crowed truimphantly, dropping the phone into Zhengting’s hand, “Don’t worry I didn’t send anything embarrassing. I just sent our address and he replied with ‘I’ll be right there’.”

“It isn’t even 9pm yet,” Justin pointed out, “It can hardly be considered late.”

Zhengting felt his phone vibrate.

**Linkai:** youre making me wait until tomorrow but you invite kun over?

**Linkai:** mean

**Zhengzheng:** Chengcheng’s fault.

**Linkai:** an explanation for most of your problems tbh

Zhengting put down his phone, shoving at Justin, “Get off, I have to comb my hair. Recall that I was sleeping when you brought Linkai over and I still look like a mess because I didn’t have a chance to clean myself up.”

Justin turned himself around in Zhengting’s lap, combing his fingers through Zhengting’s hair, “It’s not that bad. A little bit of messiness gives you a casual look. If you comb and style your hair at 8:52pm then you’ll seem fake.”

Chengcheng adjusted Zhengting’s shirt so that it was no longer falling off one shoulder, smacking Zhengting’s hand away when he reached up to redo the buttons.

“You have to at least leave two open, what kind of person buttons a shirt all the way to the top? Justiiiin stop messing with his hair, the ‘just woke up’ look suited him.”

Zhengting ducked away from their prying hands, “Okay, you guys are acting weird. What are you up to?”

“We’re evening the playing field. If you’re going to be distracted by the fact that he’s hot we’re going to make him distracted by the fact that you’re also hot. That way you can both be equally inarticulate.”

“Stop talking nonsense,” Zhengting swatted Justin’s hands away, “No one’s going to be distracted by anything, and you two don’t get to run off this time. You’re staying.”

“We’re serious!” Justin insisted, “I asked Ziyi ge what kind of person Kun was attracted to and it was almost like he was describing you.”

“What are you- are you trying to set me up with him?” Zhengting accused, eyes widening in disbelief.

Chengcheng shied away from Zhengting’s glare, “Not him specifically, personally I think Ziyi would also make a good match. More than Xiaogui and Linong at least.”

“Excuse me?”

“Come on, when was the last time you had friends other than us?”

“And that means I have to date one of them?” Zhengting's voice was still tinged with disbelief, “You don’t even know if they like guys!”

The doorbell rang and Justin immediately clung onto Zhengting in case he tried to run. Chengcheng got up to answer the door, “Xukun! It’s nice to see you, you're here to see Zhengting ge right?”

Zhengting felt his heartrate pick up when Xukun walked through the door, suddenly aware that he probably looked like even more of a mess than he thought. Between taking a nap and scuffling with Xiaogui he probably looked like he didn’t know what hygiene was.

Xukun showed a hint of surprise when he saw Zhengting and Justin tangled up on the couch, both probably not looking very professional or put together.

“Hi there,” Zhengting greeted, voice strained, “I- um, sorry about my current, um,” he waved at himself and Justin, “Did you want something? I mean, like, tea or water or…...yeah.”

“No, it’s fine, I just kind of wanted to meet you since you’re a friend of, well, of all of my friends actually.”

Zhengting’s smile became strained as Xukun approached, sitting down next to him on the couch. Justin squeezed Zhengting’s hand reassuringly, and Xukun’s gaze was drawn to the movement.

“You guys seem really close,” he commented, “How did you meet?”

“I took them in after they graduated high school, since they wanted to pursue a career their families weren’t the most supportive of.”

“When we were freshmen, gege came to help out one of his old teachers and we happened to meet.” Justin remembered, “I guess we imprinted on him or something because we never left him alone after that.”

“He’s a very friendly person,” Chengcheng added, “He bonds with people very quickly or not at all. It only took a week before he was fretting over our bad eating and sleeping habits.”

“I have a week to make him like me then?” Xukun asked, a teasing glint in his eye, “Guess I better get to work then. When are you free tomorrow?”

“He’s free after lunch,” Chengcheng answered for him.

“He likes shopping.” Justin added, earning him a glare from Zhengting.

“Ignore him, he-”

“Do you want to come shopping with me then?” Xukun asked, cutting Zhengting off, “I needed to get some new things anyway. Does tomorrow at 3pm work?”

“Yes!” Justin and Chengcheng answered for him.

Xukun glanced at Zhengting, “Zhengting?”

Justin elbowed him in the ribs, snapping him out of his daze, “Oh! Um, yeah. Sure. Where did you want to meet?” Zhengting stuttered out.

Xukun smiled, “I’ll pick you up.” he held out his hand, “Nice to finally meet you? I should be going now, don’t want to overstay my welcome since I’m pretty sure it was one of your little ones that invited me over.”

Zhengting smiled shakily, “O-Of course.” he reached out his hand, but instead of a handshake Xukun pressed a kiss to the back of Zhengting’s hand.

“Look forward to seeing you tomorrow.” he dropped Zhengting’s hand, “Sorry about that, Yanjun says he greets all pretty boys like that so I couldn’t help but try it out for myself.”

Justin moved off of Zhengting’s lap, giving him a push, “Walk Kun to his car!”

Zhengting got up reluctantly, shooting Justin a scathing look.

_‘You’re in so much trouble later.’_

_‘You got this! Don’t keep him waiting.’_

Zhengting turned to see Xukun waiting patiently, a slight smile on his face. 

“I’m so sorry about all of this,” Zhengting apologized once they were outside, “It wasn’t my intention to make you come all this way to have a thirty second conversation.”

“It’s fine. I was happy to do it.”

Zhengting nodded, flushing slightly, “Thanks for being good to Justin and Chengcheng,” he said sincerely, “You don’t know how much you and your friends have done for them. I’ll always be grateful for that.”

Xukun lingered next to his car, not wanting to leave yet, “You really care about them don’t you?”

“Yeah. They have that effect on people.”

“Whenever you talk about them you lose that nervousness you always seem to have around me.” Xukun noticed, “That night outside my house you were ready to tear into me if I had let them have alcohol.”

Zhengting cringed, “Sorry about that.”

“No, I thought it was sweet. A little intimidating, but mostly sweet.”

“Intimidating?” Zhengting raised an eyebrow, “Me?”

Xukun laughed, “Nothing scarier than an overprotective mother.”

“Well, I shoud be getting back insi- jesus chri- is that your car?” Zhengting stared wide eyed at the car parked behind Xukun, how did he not notice it before? 

Xukun stepped aside to let Zhengting get a better look at it, “You like it? I can give you a ride if you want, driving at night is always fun.”

Zhengting could’ve sworn he heard hopefulness in Xukun’s voice, but he shook away the thought. He was probably just being polite. 

“No, I shouldn’t,” Zhengting took a step back, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Zhengting turned and walked quickly back towards his house, not needing to look to know that Xukun was still watching him, not getting into his car until Zhengting disappeared back into his house.

“You two,” Zhengting started, staring sternly at the two boys sitting on the couch, “will be washing dishes for the next month for all the stress you’ve caused me.”

He collapsed on the couch, letting Chengcheng massage the tension out of his shoulders. Justin handed him a glass of water, “Are you mad at us?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Zhengting sighed, taking the water, “That depends on how horribly I crash and burn tomorrow.”

“You won’t!” Justin assured him with a confidence Zhengting didn’t feel, “I can tell just from today that he finds your awkwardness endearing and even flattering.”

“Also he was totally checking you out. And flirting with you.” Chengcheng added, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him stare at someone so intently.”

Zhengting looked at them skeptically, “I doubt you guys are the most reliable judge for this, last time you thought someone liked me-”

“We were right!” Justin interrupted, “He did like you but we didn’t like him, so we told him you were too good for him.”

“He called us worthless brats.”

“then you slapped him,”

“And we burned that picture of him you kept on the dresser.” Chengcheng finished, looking proud of himself, “We replaced it with that one photo we took at the beach with the pretty sand.”

Zhengting smiled and shook his head, “It’s so hard to stay mad at you two.” 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments! I've died laughing reading some of them and they always make my day.

“You should wear this!”

“That was expensive! Keep it in good condition for future events.”

“How about this?”

“That one’s practically see through!”

“This?”

“No one needs that big of a hole in their jeans.”

Justin smacked Zhengting, “Stop being difficult. I like the white one.”

“Why are we chossing clothing from  _ your _ wardrobes?” Zhengting asked, “All of it’s so flashy and unnecessary.”

“I think the black shirt looks better,” Chengcheng said, ignoring Zhengting, “Dark fabric looks more stricking against pale skin.”

“What’s wrong with my normal clothing?”

“I like the innocent look white gives,” Justin continued as if Zhengting hadn’t spoken, “that contrasts with the way you’ll be able to see the outline of his body when the sunlight shines through it.”

“Oh yeah, that makes sense. What about accessories?” 

Zhengting sighed, sitting down on the bed and pulling out his phone, “Do I get a say in this?”

“Nope.”

“Gotcha.”

Zhengting tuned out their conversation, checking his phone for messages instead.

**Linkai:** dude good luck on your date with kunkun

**Linkai:** what are you wearing?

**Zhengzheng** : Ugh not you too

**Zhengzheng:** Justin and Chengcheng have been choosing clothing for the past half hour.

**Zhengzheng:** What’s wrong with how I usually dress?

**Linkai:** its boring

**Linkai** : you look like youre about to go to work

**Linkai** : you own five shirts and theyre all white button ups

**Zhengzheng:** Okay that’s not true.

**Zhengzheng:** Wait rip I just checked and you’re right.

**Linkai:** ayyyyyy

**Linkai:** i think i mightve left my jacket there from lunch you should wear it

**Zhengzheng** : What no

**Zhengzheng:** Why would I do that

**Linkai:** bc it would look good on you

**Linkai:** it might be in your room did you find it

**Zhengzheng** : This thing is huge

**Zhengzheng** : It’s yours?

**Linkai:** ziyi’s

**Linkai:** wear it

**Linkai:** youll look cute in oversized clothing

**Zhengzheng** : I’m not wearing his clothing without permission.

**Linkai:** ok update i told ziyi how sad your wardrobe is and he says you can have the jacket

**Linkai:** so technically its yours now

**Zhengzheng:** I hate you.

**Linkai:** send pictures

~

“He’s here! Gege, get over her- stop drinking water, your lipstick is almost all gone!”

“Why am I even wearing lipstick?” Zhengting said, sounding stressed, “or any of this,” he gestured in disgust at his jewelry, “I look like some wannabe idol.”

“He’s coming up the driveway,” Chengcheng announced, “No more time to argue, get over here.”

He and Justin gave him a thumbs up before retreating into their rooms, giving them the illusion of privacy while most definitely spying through the crack of the door.

“Hi.” Zhengting greeted Xukun, sounding a bit breathless, “You, um, you look good.”

“Thanks, you too.” Xukun didn’t even try to be discreet as he looked Zhengting over, frowning slightly as his eyes lingered on the jacket, “Wanna head out?”

As soon as the door was shut behind them Zhengting undid the choker and shoved it in his pocket, his ring and bracelet following.

“What are you doing?”

Zhengting jumped slightly, realizing that Xukun had stopped to look back at him, “I was just…….Justin and Chengcheng went a bit overboard with the whole dress up thing.”

Xukun studied Zhengting carefully, “I think it looked good.”

He stepped closer and fished the choker out of Zhengting’s pocket, his fingers brushing against Zhengting’s neck as he returned the black strip of cloth to it’s original place.

Xukun stepped back, smiling brightly, “There we go. Are you ready to leave?”

“Y-Yeah.”

Xukun opened the car door for Zhengting before getting into the driver’s seat, his smile dimming a little when he looked over at Zhengting..

“Where did you get that jacket? It looks kind of familiar.”

Zhengting fiddled with the sleeve of the oversized jacket, “It probably looks familiar because Linkai wore it out of your house this afternoon. I promise I didn’t steal it, he accidentally left it at our house and then told me to wear it-”

Xukun frowned, “Xiaogui let you borrow his jacket?”

Zhengting fidgeted, Xukun’s sudden change in mood making him nervous, “It’s actually Ziyi’s. I think.”

“Hm.”

Xukun’s frown deepened, and with his gaze still fixed on the road Zhengting couldn’t tell whether he was upset at the traffic or something Zhengting said. Maybe he was upset that a stranger was inviting themself into his friend group?

“I’ll leave it with you and you can bring it back to him,” Zhengting suggested, trying to find the source of his irritation.

“Good idea.” Xukun pulled into a parking lot, looking over at Zhengting, “You can just leave it in the backseat.”

Right now? Zhengting masked his surprise, reluctantly taking the jacket off, he had gotten to appreciate the warmth it provided. He turned to set the folded up jacket in the backseat, yelping in surprise when an object was tossed at him.

Zhengting stared blankly at the piece of cloth thrown at him before looking up and noticing that Xukun had taken off his jacket.

“Wear it,” Xukun told him when Zhengting continued to stare blankly at him, “In case you get cold.”

Zhengting slipped the jacket on, trying not to process the events as to maintain his sanity until he was back in the privacy of his own home. Instead he opted to study his surroundings, realizing he had no idea where they were.

“I’ve never been here before.”

“That was kind of the point.” Xukun said, leading him through the unfamiliar place, “I didn’t want to bring you somewhere you’ve already been. Where do you want to go first?”

“Um, what did you want to get?”

“Gui told me to buy new decorative pillows. He accidentally got hair dye on the other ones.”

Zhengting couldn’t help but smile, “He’s really going to dye his hair? Was he doing green or pink?”

“Green.” Xukun gave him that pensive look again, steering them into a store filled with decorative pillows, “He told you?”

“Oh. Uh, yeah, but it’s only because I brought it up. And he happened to be at my house then. It was just convenient to tell me first.”

Shit. Did he say something wrong again? Say something to distract him. Or explain the situation.

“It was actually a bet we made. Kind of a joke. I didn’t think he would actually do it.”

Xukun raised an eyebrow, but his expression remained tense, “Yeah? What was the bet?”

“Um, you know how he thinks my tech job is boring right?”

Nope. Apparently he didn’t. Zhengting bit his lip, why did he keep saying these things? It was almost like he was flaunting his association with Xukun’s friends.

“He, uh, looked through the workplace regulations and realized there was no restriction for hair color except ‘no unnatural colors’, so he said that he would dye his hair if I bleached mine,” Zhengting rambled, “I said I would only do it if he went green or pink, it was a joke. I didn’t think he’d actually do it.”

“You’re going to dye your hair blonde?” Xukun asked, the tenseness finally dissipated from his face. His gaze flitted up to Zhengting’s hair, “I think it’d suit you, do you want to get that done here?”

“What?”

“Not right now obviously, after we’re done-” Xukun picked up a particularly hideous throw pillow, before making a face and dropping it again, “-picking out things.”

“I can just do it at home. There’s no need to spend unnecessary money at a salon.”

“I’ll pay for it.” Xukun offered immediately, “I want to be the first to see how you look.”

“You don’t have to-”

“Of course I don’t  _ have _ to, I don’t have to do anything, I just want to.”

Zhengting averted his gaze, glancing around the store nervously, “I like this one,” he said, picking up a green and white pillow. Amusement flickered across Xukun’s face at Zhengting’s clumsy attempt to change the subject, but he didn’t pry.

“Let’s get that one then. I’m bored of looking at pillows. Let’s get out of here.”

~

“Are you getting all of that for yourself?”

Zhengting picked up another skincare product, “Of course not, I’m shopping for three. Not everyone can have naturally good skin.”

Xukun laughed, “Pick something out for me too then, I’ll have to learn how to take care of my skin someday.”

~

“Are you going to get any of these?”

“Of course not! I have children at home, I can’t buy some 1000 piece lego sculpture.”

“Aren’t Justin and Chengcheng 18 already?”

~

“Let me buy you the damn pretzel.”

“It’s an overpriced piece of dough.”

“I’m buying it.”

“Caixukun!”

~

“Are you going to get it?”

Zhengting shook his head, putting the shirt back onto the rack, “I work a boring office job. When am I ever going to wear something like this?”

“On our next date?”

Zhengting pouted at Xukun, “Stop joking around. Are you done picking out things?”

“Yup,” Xukun glanced at the clothing Zhengting was holding, “You aren’t going to try any of that on?”

“No need, it’s not for me. Ready to go then?”

“Not anymore I’m not, you aren’t getting anything for yourself?” Xukun gave him a disapproving look.

“I did get things for myself!” Zhengting said defensively, “I just don’t need new clothing. It’s expensive and unnecessary, especially since Justin and Chengcheng need so much new clothing. They wear the same thing twice and suddenly the internet’s calling them all sorts of names.”

“Am I allowed to buy you something then?”

“No.”

“Come on, it’ll be an apology for not bringing you flowers or chocolate or something like that.”

“You weren’t supposed to bring me anything anyway! Stop offering to buy me things.”

“Fine.”

~

“Here, these are for you.”

Zhengting stared at the bag Xukun held out to him, not moving to take it, “I thought I told you not to get me anything?”

“You told me to stop  _ offering. _ ” Xukun corrected, “You never said I couldn’t actually get you anything.”

“Kun…”

“It’s only three things. Just take it.”

Zhengting took the bag, resisting the urge to check it’s contents immediately, “Thank you. I’ll see you another time then?”

“Of course.”

Zhengting walked back towards his house, this time turning to check if Xukun really was watching him. He waved back at Zhengting, still leaning against the side of his car, evidently waiting for Zhengting to disappear back into the house before leaving.

Zhengting ducked quickly into his house, feeling his face heat up. 

~

“Welcome home, have you decided whether or not you’re mad at us yet?”

Justin and Chengcheng were curled up together on the couch, apparently watching a movie before Zhengting came in.

Zhengting sighed, putting down the shopping bags, “I’m officially not mad at you guys.”

“It went well then? Tell us ev- uhhhh,” they stared at Zhengting, frowning in confusion.

“Is there something on my face?”

“You weren’t wearing that when you left the house.”

Zhengting was confused for a second before he realized he was still wearing Xukun’s jacket. He took it off quickly, draping it carefully over the back of a chair.

“Caixukun didn’t like me taking Ziyi’s clothing so I gave it back.”

Justin crossed his arms, “Kind of rude but ok. How much did that one cost? You usually don’t buy stuff like that.”

Zhengting began to pull things out of the shopping bags, passing them over to Justin and Chengcheng, “I didn’t buy it. That jacket actually belongs to Caixukun.”

“What?”

Justin and Chengcheng stared at him, new clothing forgotten. 

“He gave you his jacket?”

“Yes….? Why are you two acting weird?”

“He didn’t like you wearing Ziyi’s jacket and gave you his instead. Are you not getting this? Chengcheng, you’re with me right?”

Chengcheng gave Justin a thumbs up.

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.” Justin waved him off, “You’ll get it eventually. Where did you find this shirt? I like the pattern.”

Zhengting put the skincare products in the bathroom while Justin and Chengcheng tried on their new clothing.

“Zhengting ge! Come here!”

He walked back into the living room to see Chengcheng holding the bag Xukun had given him earlier, a small object in his hand.

“You bought diamond earrings? For what occasion? Did someone get married? Are we going to a wedding?

“Diamo- for christ sake I’m going to kill him.” Zhengting groaned to himself, “Nope. No wedding.” he told Chengcheng, grabbing the small jewerly box and tossing it back into the bag, “This stuff isn’t mine. I have to give it back to Xukun.”

“The bracelet and ring you wore out of the house today are also in the bag,” Justin noticed, “Why would they be in the bag if it wasn’t yours?”

Zhengting took the bag from Justin, fishing out the jewerly and handing it back to him, “I left these in Ziyi’s jacket, Xukun must’ve taken it out.”

“Why would he put it in the bag though? Wouldn’t he just give it back to you?” Justin’s eyes widened, “You’re keeping something from us. Spill. You know you can’t lie to us, we can read your mind.”

“Fine. Xukun gave this to me, but now that I know what it is I can’t possibly keep it. I’ll have Linkai come by and pick it up, along with the jacket.”

“Oh please. I guarantee Xiaogui won’t let you return the gift. Neither would Xukun.”

“Are you saying I should call Ziyi then?”

“No!” Justin exclaimed, exasperated, “I’m saying you should just accept the gift. Use it as an excuse to treat him to coffee or dinner or something. Say it’s to thank him for the wonderful present, and then wear the clothing and earrings when you go to meet him .”

“Well, thanks for that advice, I think I’m going to go find the exact price of every one of these items.”

“Ugh, stop being so dramatic gege.” Chengcheng dragged Zhengting onto the couch with him, fishing the phone out of his pocket while he was distracted, “Justin!”

Chengcheng tossed the phone to Justin before collapsing on top of Zhengting.

“Hey- Fan Chengcheng you’re so heavy- get off!”

Zhengting stopped struggling, glaring up at Justin instead, “I’m changing my phone password.”

“No you aren’t,” Justin responded, eyes focused on Zhengting’s phone, “Don’t worry I know how to sound like you when texting, I won’t send anything you wouldn’t.”

“I wouldn’t send him anything at all!”

“Oh shit, tomorrow’s Monday.” Chengcheng realized.

“Language.”

“He’s always dead to the world after work, what if he rejects the invitation? We’re not sending anything if we aren’t 100% sure he’s accepting.”

Justin lowered the phone, “Um, okay. How about next weekend then?”

“Are we really going to set the precedent that they’re only seeing each other on weekends?”

“Nevermind, new plan. Zhengting, go put on the clothing he bought you. I’m going to send him a picture.”

Zhengting tilted his head up from where Chengcheng had him smooshed against the couch, “I’d love to, but I don’t trust either of you right now. Besides, I haven’t made dinner yet. Aren’t you two hungry?”

“Stop trying to bribe us with food,” Justin whined, “Just- ok fine we’re hungry. But we’re continuing this after dinner.”

Chengcheng rolled off of Zhengting, letting him escape into the kitchen. “That went well.”

“How do we make sure we don’t get rejected?”

“ _ We _ could ask,” Chengcheng suggested, “That way it doesn’t really matter whether or not we get rejected.”

“Yeah, but then it would be like a friendly get together. How about we just get Kun to invite Zhengting?”

“How do we do that?”

“I think I have an idea.”

~

**Caixukun** : that was fun

**Caixukun:** I’m glad you stopped being nervous half an hour in

**Caixukun:** does that mean you’re comfortable around me now?

**Zhengting:** Nope.

**Zhengting:** Still a mess.

**Caixukun:** you weren’t a mess the entire time

**Zhengting:** You kept on annoying me and exasperation took over.

**Zhengting:** Not in a bad way sorry if that sounded mean.

**Caixukun:** you’re so cute

**Caixukun:** well at least I know how to get you to relax now

~

**Chengfan:** [image.jpg]

**Chengfan:** how is it fair that some people dont look stupid when sleeping

**Chengfan:** also you should come pick up your jacket

_ *ChengFan, written 盛饭 means serve food/rice and has the same pronunciation as 丞范(the characters cheng and fan from his chinese name. It’s a bad pun sue me) _

~

Xukun stared at the photo Chengcheng sent him, mind barely processing what he was seeing. Zhengting was asleep on the couch, shirt halfway unbuttoned and using Xukun’s jacket as a makeshift blanket.

“What’s up bro, you’re staring at your phone like an idiot.”

“It’s nothing. Chengcheng just sent me a message.”

Xukun shut off the screen before Ziyi could glance over his shoulder, “Stop being nosy.”

“Okay, now I’m curious. Since when do you have anything to hide? Hey Xiaogui! Kun’s acting weird, come help me interrogate him.”

Xiaogui jumped over the back of the couch, landing with a thump beside them, “What is it? Is it about your date with Zhengting?”

“You guys know him pretty well right?”

“Of course,” Xiaogui affirmed proudly, “He practically tells me everything.”

“So if I were to invite him for dinner tomorrow would he be too busy? Since it’s a workday?”

“Their finances stabilized so he’s no longer working overtime. If we take Justin and Chengcheng off his hands he should be completely free.”

Xukun made a face, “Why do you know their financial situation?”

“Not important. We’ll invite Justin and Chengcheng over to dinner, you’ll invite Zhengzheng somewhere. Bring him flowers or something.”

“And if he says no?”

Xiaogui rolled his eyes, “Then you’ll join us in the club of people he’s rejected- of course he’s not going to say no! You think we’d let you ask if we didn’t think he would say yes?”

“Yes.”

“Ok fair. But he’s definitely going to say yes.”

~

“There’s no way this was a coincidence. Linkai and Ziyi just happened to invite only the two of you to dinner? Conveniently leaving me and Xukun free for the evening? Did you get them in on this-” Zhengting gestured at nothing, “this weird matchmaking thing you guys are doing?”

“He’ll be picking you up in half an hour. You should get ready.”

“I could just go like this.” 

Justin looked appalled at Zhengting’s suggestion, “You just got back from work! Those are your work clothes! You aren’t wearing that. Over my dead body. Chengcheng, get up.”

Chengcheng lifted his head from Justin’s shoulder, still half asleep, “What is it? Is it time to go?”

“No, gege wants to wear  _ that _ .”

Chengcheng scoffed, putting his head down again, “No. Tell him to wear the outfit Kun bought him yesterday. He obviously wanted to see you in it, why else would he buy it for you?”

“You have 25 minutes now, and he’ll probably arrive early to make a good impression.”

“Okay, okay, fine. I just realized how lazy I would seem if I didn’t even change out of my work clothes.” Zhengting paused just outside of his room, “But I don’t even know where we’re going, how am I supposed to know how to dress?”

“Nope. Okay, I’m done with this.” Justin herded Zhengting into his room, “Put the clothing on, wear Kun’s jacket over it, I’ll go get some sort of accessory. Chengcheng!”

Zhengting watched them disappear into their room, hearing shuffling sounds as they rummaged through their drawers. He sighed and looked at the clothing folded neatly on top of his dresser. The pants at least seemed to be normal jeans, just higher quality than he was used to.

The shirt on the other hand  _ felt _ delicate in his hands, the fabric soft and light, thin enough that Zhengting was afraid that gravity would make it fall apart on itself.

This was ridiculous. Zhengting usually never wore anything priced over $25. Heck, he usually never wore anything not from  _ Target _ . There was no way anything he had on right now was under $25 or from Target.

Justin shot into the room, launching himself onto the bed next to Zhengting, “He’s here ten minutes early,” he reported, “I saw his car pulling up.”

Zhengting almost staggered at the sudden rush of anxiety, a dozen different catastrophic senarios flitting through his mind.

His head snapped up at the sound of the doorbell, “I can’t do this. Can you buy me some time?”

Justin immediately curled up against Zhengting, motioning for Chengcheng to go get the door. He left quickly, shutting the bedroom door behind him.

“Hey Kun! Zhengting ge will be out in a second, he’s just helping Justin out with something. How’s your new album going? I heard you finally started recording and stuff.”

Justin played idly with Zhengting’s fingers, letting him get his panic under control. He could feel Zhengting’s body rise and fall as he took deep breaths, counting over a dozen breaths before Zhengting sat up, pulling away from Justin.

“Okay. I think I’m good now.”

Justin patted him on the back, “We’ll have our phones with us all night. We’ll call periodically in case you need an excuse to leave.”

“I love you, you guys are the best.”

“I know.”

~

“You look good.”

“Huh?”

Xukun smiled, slightly awkward, “I wanted to tell you that earlier but it felt kind of weird saying that in front of your children.”

“Oh. T-Thank you. You look nice too.”

“Okay. We aren’t doing the polite small talk complimenting thing.” Xukun said, slightly frustrated, “You look beautiful. I mean it. Especially since….” he looked Zhengting over again, “Since everything you’re wearing is something I gave you.”

Zhengting froze, hand half-extended towards the car door. 

Xukun smiled sheepishly, “I’m sorry, was that creepy?” He opened the car door for Zhengting, who was still frozen in shock, “It sounded better in my head.”

Zhengting snapped out of it, quickly getting into the car, “No, I didn’t think- it was- you’re fine. I was just…….surprised. Do you want your jacket back?”

Xukun got into the driver’s seat, starting the car, “No, keep it for now. I like seeing you in it.”

“If you keep saying things like that I’m going to start thinking this is a date,” Zhengting joked, trying to cover up his nervousness.

“Is this not a date?”

“Depends,” Zhengting teased, “Did you bring me flowers this time?”

“If I tell you Chengcheng already put the flowers in the kitchen does that make this a date?”

“Wait, are you serious?” 

Xukun pulled into a parking lot, sparing a quick glance in Zhengting’s direction, “Yup. I brought you flowers but Chengcheng confiscated them as soon as I walked through the door. He scolded me for stressing you out and said I probably should’ve done the flowers before the diamond earrings.”

He stopped the car, finally turning to look at Zhengting, “They look good on you by the way.”

“Chengcheng said that to you?” Zhengting groaned, “I’m so sorry. Obviously I’m very grateful for all the gifts, but he just meant that you didn’t have to buy them, not that we didn’t appreciate the gesture.”

“Stop worrying,” Xukun chided, “Is it going to take a full half hour for you to relax this time or are you good now?”

“I’m fine. I’m great. I- where are we?”

Xukun got out of the car, opening Zhengting’s door for him, “Hair salon.”

“Why?”

“Because you said I could be the first to see you with blonde hair,” Xukun responded, taking Zhengting’s hand and leading him through the doorway, “What, never been to a salon before?”

“Never gotten my hair done at a salon before. I’ve seen Justin and Chengcheng get their hair done though, they need someone to keep them company or they’ll be bored out of their minds.”

“That makes sense. Why don’t you tell me more about them? You seem the most comfortable when talking about other people.”

Zhengting sat down, letting the stylist begin working over his hair, “I remember Chengcheng once dyed his hair red. He looked so handsome and I must’ve taken over a hundred photos of him with that hair. Same with Justin and his blonde hair.”

“Mhm.”

“They always complain about me taking too many photos, but then they print them out and plaster them all over their walls. It’s adorable. They decorate their room so much even though they barely spend any time in there.”

“Yeah? And why is that?” Xukun smiled fondly at Zhengting, happy to let him talk.

“They say my bed is softer even though I think they feel exactly the same. But they use that as an excuse to lounge there during the day and sleep there at night. The only thing they use their own room for is recording.”

“And you don’t mind?”

“Nah, the bed is big enough for all of us. I think it’s cute how cuddly they are, they’re almost like kittens. Mischievous and free spirited but also really clingy.”

“I can see that,” Xukun nodded to himself, “They’re always clinging to each other so it makes sense that they’re like that with you too. They really do seem like your children at times.”

Zhengting laughed, “Yeah. They’re definitely capable of taking care of themselves, but I think they like being spoiled. Being taken care of. Sometimes they get this satisfied, almost gloating expression on their faces when talking about our family, it makes me feel like I’ve done a good job raising them.”

“Sorry to bring this up, but Xiaogui mentioned you were having financial issues?”

“He did? Oh, well we did have a bit of a problem a while back, and that’s why I suddenly began taking jobs from Linkai and Ziyi. I promise I wasn’t using you guys for media exposure or anything like that.”

“Didn’t think you were. But….everything’s fine now right?”

“Of course,” Zhengting assured him, “More than fine actually, since Justin and Chengcheng are doing especially well now. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay. Your hair looks good.”

Zhengting looked away from Xukun, spotting himself in the mirror, “Oh! That’s…….different. Justin and Chengcheng are going to freak out, I didn’t even tell them I was doing this. Can you take a picture for me? If I don’t tell them first they’ll get all pouty.”

“Sure.” Xukun took Zhengting’s phone, snapping a photo of Zhengting before handing it back.

“I probably don’t have to send it to Linkai or Ziyi, since they should be with Justin and Chengcheng right?” Zhengting spoke, mostly to himself, “Could you give me just a second?”

**ZhuMama** : [image.ipg]

**ZhuMama** : Surprise

**ZhuMama** : Everything’s fine no need to check in this hour

**Huangbaobei** : OH MY GOD

**Huangbaobei:** explanation now

**Chengbaobao:** DONT LEAVE US ON READ

**Chengbaobao:** ZHU ZHENGTING

**Huangbaobei:** so rude

Zhengting pocketed his phone, “Sorry about that, where are we going now?”

“There’s a restaurant just next door, dinner now or did you want to take a walk around this area first?”

“Food sounds nice.”

~

Was this a date? As much as they joked about it being a date Xukun had no idea if Zhengting was actually being serious about it.

“I’ve got it,” Xukun took the bill as soon as the waiter set it down.

Zhengting withdrew his hand, pouting slightly, “Can we split the bill or are you going to do the ‘a gentleman always pays on the first date’ thing.”

Xukun smiled, “Whoever invited should pay. Imagine if I asked you out, chose the restaurant without your input, and then expected you to pay half the bill. That would be all sorts of rude.”

“You have a point,” Zhengting conceded, “How about I buy you dessert? I think I saw an ice cream place across the street.”

“Isn’t it too cold for ice cream?”

“It’s never too cold for ice cream.”

They left the restaurant, Zhengting keeping a careful distance as they walked side by side. Xiaogui told him that Zhengting had a habit of linking arms with people when walking, was he just not comfortable enough with Xukun yet?

“Does this count as our first or second date?” Xukun asked once they had gotten their ice cream and were seated on a bench outside, “You called it our first date earlier, but I was kinda hoping our shopping trip could count as date number one.”

Zhengting smiled at Xukun, “This can be date number two if you want, is it important?”

Xukun slung an arm over the back of the bench, leaning closer, “I mean, considering it’s common courtesy not to kiss until the third date, I should hope we get there sooner rather than later.”

Zhengting flushed in embarrassment, and, to Xukun’s delight, decided to hide his face against Xukun’s chest instead of ducking away.

“You’re giving me high blood pressure,” Zhengting mumbled into Xukun’s shirt, words muffled, “I spent the past two hours wondering whether or not this was an actual date, you couldn’t have confirmed it earlier? Would’ve saved my endocrine system a lot of cortisol.”

Xukun shrugged, rubbing Zhengting’s back comfortingly, “You didn’t ask.”

Zhengting peeked up at him, “I was going to ask when you dropped me off at home. Imagine if I asked earlier and you said no? Then the rest of the evening would’ve been awkward as hell.”

Xukun laughed, “Yeah, that’s probably why I took this long too. Ready to leave?”

Zhengting got up, linking arms with Xukun as they walked back to the car, “In what world would I reject  _ you?” _

“You rejected Ziyi when he asked you to dinner.”

“Okay, that was different. I was hiding my identity at that point in time.”

“You refused to give Xiaogui your phone number.”

“That was because he already had it! He just didn’t know.”

“Yanjun offered to fly you to LA and you said no.”

Zhengting gave Xukun a shove, laughing, “Stop saying things out of context! I couldn’t just leave my children at home and run off to LA.”

Xukun opened the door for Zhengting, earning him a smile as Zhengting got into the car, “You always do that,” he noticed, “Opening doors for me.”

“Gives me an excuse to stare at you when you walk by.”

“That was awful.”

“You’re blushing.”

“Just drive.”

Xukun chuckled, pulling out of the parking lot and heading back in the direction of Zhengting’s house.

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Xukun spoke again, ”Is it bad that I have an urge to drive really slowly so I don’t have to leave you yet?”

“You’ll see me tomorrow. I mean, you _ could _ see me tomorrow. If you wanted. I was going to come by and visit Linkai, but he mentioned that you were always really tired after work, so I won’t bother you if you wanted time alo-”

Xukun parked in front of Zhengting’s house, turning to give Zhengting an incredulous look, “I can’t believe you could possibly be worried that I don’t want to see you. I’m literally the guy that drove over to your house at 9pm because I wanted to see you.”

Zhengting gave him a nervous smile, “You know, if we counted that night as our first date, technically this would be our third date.”

“Did you just give me permission to kiss you?”

“Maybe?”

Xukun raised an eyebrow, “Maybe?”

“Just do it before I change my mind or die of embarrassment.”

“My pleasure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof endings are the hardest to write.
> 
> Time to scour the internet in search of ideas and inspiration for whatever I'm gonna write next.


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